p 


THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 


THE 

POPE'S  GREEN 
ISLAND 


BY 

W.   P.   RYAN 


SMALL,    MAYNARD    ^   CO. 

15    BEACON    STREET 

BOSTON,    MASS. 


DA^- 


Printed  by  Ballanttnk,  Hanson  6=  Oo. 
At  the  Ballantyne  Press,  Edinburgh 


CONTENTS 


I.  Introductory — An  Editor's  Adventures 
II.  The  Isle  of  Extremes 

III.  Pope,  Priests,  and  Protestants 

IV.  The  Coming  of  the  Gaelic  League 
V.  The  Studious  Ireland  Outside  the  Schools 

VI.  War  about  Woman 
VII.  Ecclesiastics,  Eve,  and  Literature 
VIII.  The  Battle  of  Portarlington 
IX.  Theology  and  Waterworks     . 
X.  The  Fear  of  Liberal  Catholicism 
XI.  People  v.  Bishops    . 
XII.  Maynooth  as  Storm-Centre     . 

XIII.  An  Archiepiscopal  Pinch  of  Snuff 

XIV.  Bishops  and  Festivals     . 
XV.  Materialism  and  Mysticism     . 

XVI.  Ireland  and  Modernism 
XVII.  Evolution  .... 

XVIII.  Clerics  as  Creators  of  Folk-Lore 
XIX    Druids  Intervene     . 

XX.  Litterateurs  and  the  Land    . 
XXI.  Workers'  Gleams  and  Gloom  . 


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2177 


VI 


CONTENTS 


XXII.  Small  Holdings  and  Great  Hearts 

XXIII.  The  Hero  in  the  College 

XXIV.  Ireland  at  the  Play 
XXV.  Joan  of  Arc  and  Ireland 

XXVI.  Political  Transition 
XXVII.  En  Route 


PAGE 

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299 
308 
3U 
323 


THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTORY— AN   EDITOR'S   ADVENTURES 

This  book  is  written  primarily  for  myself  and  for 
others  who  are  seriously  interested  in  the  real  Ire- 
land. It  does  not  seek  to  establish  or  support  any 
"  case "  or  theory :  political,  theological,  or  other- 
wise. It  is  a  review  and  a  reverie,  but  a  review 
and  a  reverie  concerning  dramatic  and  enlightening 
experiences  probably  unique  in  latter-day  Ireland. 
Developments,  objective  and  subjective,  were  so  un- 
expected or  so  peculiar,  the  association  with  diverse 
individualities  was  so  liberal,  the  experience  of  stress, 
cross-currents,  and  changing  conditions  in  the  re- 
ligious, theological,  intellectual,  social,  and  other 
domains  was  so  considerable — nearly  all  of  it  reflec- 
tive of  an  Ireland  scarcely  realised  abroad,  and  in 
part  a  surprise  to  myself — that  the  whole  drama 
fascinates  the  imagination,  and  challenges  examina- 
tion, if  possible  comprehension.  Even  the  purely 
personal  record  might  be  made  expressive,  but  that 
is  a  minor  matter  in  comparison  with  the  complex 
interests  and  forces,  psychological,  social,  and  other- 
wise, which  from  an  exceptional  and  rather  ironic 
vantage-place  I  was  enabled,  nay  driven,  to  study — 

A 


2        THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

and  of  course  earlier  trends  and  historic  facts  and 
factors  that  bore  directly  upon  them  came  into  the 
review.  Trying  and  troublous  though  many  of  the 
experiences  were,  with  stagnation  and  repression  as 
accompaniments,  I  saw  much  of  work  and  workers 
that  were  joyous  and  even  heroic,  while  opposing 
principalities  and  powers  showed  human  and  almost 
epic  qualities  on  occasion.  I  often  had  reason  to 
recall  the  sage  who  bade  us  remember  the  good 
deeds  of  our  enemies.  From  first  to  last  I  was  in 
contact  with  an  Ireland  that  appeared  inexhaustibly 
interesting  and  spacious.  In  a  breathing-spell  I 
desire  to  obtain,  if  I  can,  a  just  and  coherent  picture 
of  the  men  and  minds  concerned  in  the  making  and 
marring  of  this  transitional  Ireland. 

From  the  beginning  of  December  1905  to  the 
end  of  1910,  I  was  the  editor,  in  succession,  of  three 
Irish  weekly  papers — yet  practically  one  and  the 
same  paper — that  had  the  curious  fortune  of  proving 
obnoxious  or  distasteful  to  official  Catholic  authori- 
ties in  Ireland,  and  of  being  a  joy  and  an  inspiration 
to  younger  Irish  Catholic  clerics — several  of  whom 
were  contributors  to  their  pages — as  well  as  to  a  host 
of  independent  and  progressive  lay  workers  I  was 
banned  by  clerics  and  blessed  by  clerics.  Certain 
Protestants  were  heartened  by  the  ideas  and  the 
struggle,  and  cordially  co-operated ;  other  Protestants 
were  puzzled  or  alaitned.  Materialists,  idealists. 
Modernists,  theosophists,  became  interested.  All  this, 
though  peculiar  and  piquant,  would  not  be  worth 
reviewing  if  the  work  we  did  or  tried  to  do  was  not 
worth  doing,  and  of  Irish  and  human  appeal.  It 
was   so,   I  believe,   at  every  stage ;  and  there  was 


INTRODUCTORY  8 

scarcely  anything  of  significance  in  Ireland  that  did 
not  enter  into  our  province. 

All  the  time  new  factors  and  forces  had  come  or 
were  coming  into  being,  and,  apart  from  their  own 
creative  stress,  challenged  powerful  old  orders  and 
conventions,  though  some  on  both  sides  pretended 
that  there  was  no  challenge.  A  national  conscious- 
ness and  a  spirit  of  criticism  that  had  been  rising 
for  a  decade  earlier  began  to  give  a  more  serious 
account  of  themselves.  One  saw  an  Ireland  as  rigid 
and  insensitive  as  minerals  apparently  are,  and  one 
realised  an  Ireland  the  movement  and  growth  of 
whose  mind  might  be  felt.  Closer  study  revealed  a 
curious  variety  in  this  living  Ireland.  Builders  had 
sometimes  builded  better  than  they  knew,  pioneers 
had  led  to  stages  of  which  they  had  no  notion  what- 
ever at  the  beginning.  The  mission  of  the  Gaelic 
League,  for  the  furtherance  and  popularisation  of  the 
Irish  language  and  what  were  called  "  Irish- Ireland  " 
ideas,  had  developed  faculties  and  feelings  far  re- 
moved from  the  formal  conception  and  programme, 
and  led  amongst  other  things  to  an  educational  zest 
delightful  to  thousands  in  humble  places,  disturbing 
or  irritating  to  many  in  high  places.  It  had  attracted 
Churchmen  and  antagonised  Churchmen.  Within 
itself  and  without  itself  Catholicism  in  Ireland  had 
~tprcc£on  with  facts  and  factors  which  to  an  extent 
entirely  novel  in  a  long  submissive  and  unquestioning 
nation  put  it  on  its  trial  philosophically,  nationally, 
and  above  all  socially.  Even  priests  had  come  to  admit 
that  a  serious  case  could  be  made  out  against  official 
Maynooth,  and  that  in  the  Ireland  outside  its  walls 
Catholicism  had  grown  formal  and  unworthy  of  its 


4         THE   POPES   GREEN    ISLAND 

traditions  as  a  spiritual  and  social  force.  Amongst 
numerous  laics  and  clerics  there  was  a  very  critical 
attitude  towards  Vaticanism,  or  the  political  and 
diplomatic  side  of  Rome,  though  the  Ultramontane 
attitude  grew  stronger  in  other  quarters.  '■  On  the 
place  and  rights  of  priests  in  the  Irish  social  economy 
there  were  conflicting  notions  amongst  the  priests 
themselves,  and  a  still  greater  conflict  of  view  as 
to  the  place  and  rights  of  laics  in  the  Church  and 
elsewhere.  Leaders  of  the  laity  who  claimed  that 
they  had  rights  in  the  Church  had  their  claims  ad- 
mitted frankly  by  candid  priests,  while  they  shocked 
or  alarmed  not  a  few  of  their  lay  brethren.^  The 
Catholic  bishops  as  a  whole  were  not  particularly 
popular  with  laymen  or  clerics,  and  at  one  stage 
were  severely  criticised  by  both  and  defeated  on  a 
national  and  intellectual  issue.  The  Modernist  ideas, 
though  privately  rather  than  publicly,  led  to  no  little 
unrest.  So  the  drama  in  the  Catholic  world  had 
variety  go  leor.  Something  of  Protestantism  was  also 
in  a  sense  at  the  cross-roads.  Others  raised  their 
voices  on  behalf  of  what  they  described  as  Qeltic- 
Christianity.  In  the  places  where  what,  in  the  broad 
sense,  may  be  called  theosophic  ideas,  either  obtained 
or  began  to  find  their  way,  we  found  a  vision  and 
philosophy  of  life  rather  fascinating  to  some  Irish 
temperaments.  Sometimes  the  efi'ect  of  these  esoteric 
ideas  was  to  give  inquirers  and  students  a  more 
spiritual  and  idealistic  conception  of  their  particular 
Christian  creeds,  sometimes  they  led  to  a  virtual 
parting  of  the  ways.  Through  all,  the  unhappy 
beings  who  most  needed  an  enlivening  and  exalting 
gospel  of  life — the  manual  workers  of  various  orders 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

— were  not  reached  or  taken  serious  count  of  by 
Catholic,  Protestant,  Modernist,  or  mystical  teachers ; 
at  last  they  began  to  find  pioneers  of  their  own. 
Politics  all  the  while  was  a  singular  medley,  though 
here  was  transition  too.  Literature,  in  Irish  espe- 
cially, was  racily  alive  and  companionable,  though 
the  Gael,  as  a  rule,  was  too  social  or  critical  or 
dominated  by  what  he  regarded  as  traditional,  and 
as  such  sacred,  to  be  much  of  an  originator  so 
far. 

It  must  not  be  assumed,  however,  from  this  rapid 
and  general  sketch  of  our  changing  conditions  and 
acute  issues  that  this  varied  Ireland  which  I  saw  at 
close  quarters  was  quite  problem-vexed  and  fretful. 
The  humanity  was  always  more  attractive  than  the 
problems,  and  whether  we  reached  heights  or  deeps 
of  experience  we  knew  that  the  Master  of  Life  had 
far  greater  lines  and  lessons  to  set  for  us  still.  To 
me  it  was  appealing  and  animating  to  be  amongst 
intensely  earnest  people,  some  trying  bravely  to  live 
and  express  life,  some  trying  grimly  to  suppress  it, 
and  to  have  part  and  pen  in  the  fray  at  this  critical 
phase  of  Ireland's  re-moulding  and  re-making.  It 
all  seems  to  possess  the  colour  and  character  and 
momentum  of  a  saga — with  a  dolorous  social  world 
in  the  background  always — and  it  were  a  blunder  to 
spoil  its  telling  by  any  tinge  of  conscious  partiality. 
The  factors  and  forces  of  those  five  years  are  of 
course  in  being  to-day,  and  promise  to  be  in  being 
for  many  a  day  to  come.  To  seize  them  fully  and 
fairly — with  necessary  incidental  glances  either  back- 
ward or  outward — is  to  know  Ireland  from  within, 
a  region  of  strange  light  and  shade. 


6         THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

A  few  more  or  less  personal  points  will  enable 
the  reader  to  see  the  angle,  so  to  say,  at  which 
I  observed  Irish  interests  and  changes.  I  had  the 
happy  fortune  to  grow  up  in  a  south-of-Ireland 
environment  that  still  preserved  a  good  deal  of 
the  lore  and  character  of  Gaelic  times.  In  London 
for  some  years  I  saw  much  of  the  two  different 
worlds  of  the  daily  press  and  the  Irish  organisations, 
the  last  being  the  London  Gaelic  League,  which 
was  full  of  individuality  and  zest.  From  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century  I  had  been  following  the 
new  movement  in  Ireland  itself  very  closely,  wilting 
regularly  in  new  Irish  weeklies,  and  on  home  tours 
and  visits  had  made  the  personal  acquaintance  of 
many  of  the  leaders  and  workers,  lay  and  clerical. 
Towards  the  end  of  1905  came  the  offer  of  the 
editorship  of  the  Irish  Peasant,  printed  and  pub- 
lished at  Navan,  on  the  border  of  the  beautiful 
Boyne  Valley,  some  twenty  miles  from  Dublin.  It 
had  been  started  by  Mr.  James  M'Cann,  M.P.  for 
the  College  Green  division  of  Dublin,  in  connection 
with  his  industrial  and  other  schemes  in  Meath. 
After  his  death  both  the  paper  and  the  work  were 
continued  by  Mrs.  M'Cann  and  her  sons.  The 
Irish  Peasant  was  edited  in  1905  by  Mr.  P.  D. 
Kenny  ("Pat").  While  much  of  it  was  "local" 
and  to  me  exceedingly  oppressive,  Mr.  Kenny's  own 
work  seemed  very  much  alive ;  sometimes  caustic 
when  he  addressed  clergymen  or  graziers  and  spiced 
with  an  agreeably  whimsical  egoism.  He  and  others 
gave  me  to  understand  that  he  was  regarded  as 
an  "  anti-cleric,"  but  he  thought  that  the  Pope  was 
upon  his  side. 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

I  had  given  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  clerical 
questions  in  Ireland,  especially  since  the  stage,  a  few 
years  before,  when  troubles  arose  over  Gaelic  League 
matters  in  the  west  and  south.     Most  of  the  Irish 
priests  with   whom  I  had   come  into  contact  were' 
young  and  liberal-mindfid.     We  had  discussed  philo- 
sophical and  intellectual  matters,  and  new  problems  of 
Church  and  nation,  with  interest  and  ardour ;  I  had 
written  on  some  of  them  in  Irish  and  English.     I 
looked  forward  after  London  literary  and  journalistic 
stress  to  a  peaceful,  pastoral  life  in  the  Boyne  Valley, 
which,  by  the  way,  is  wonder-ground  in  Irish  lore 
and  legend.     It  was  understood  that  I  could  make 
the    Irish    Peasant   as   representative    of  the    new 
and  hopeful  movements  as  I  pleased,  so  I  changed 
its  scope  and  nature,  bringing  out  a  general  or  all- 
Ireland  edition  as  well  as  a  local  one,  and  intro- 
ducing sundry  new  features.   From  Dublin,  Maynooth, 
Belfast,  Cork,  and  other  Irish  cities  and  towns,  as 
well    as    from    London,    Liverpool,    Glasgow,    and 
further  Irish    centres  in   Britain,    contributors    and 
correspondents    quickly   and    steadily   came.       The 
year  1906  was  a  laborious  one,  but  it  was  endlessly 
interesting     and     zestful.       While     critical    where 
necessary,  and  always  independent,  the  Irish  Peasant 
of  that  vivid  year  showed  decided  glow  and  optimism. 
It  treated  of  everything  hopeful  in  the  nation,  and 
as   one  way  of  showing  how  really  rich  and  alive 
that  nation  was  in  many  of  its  elements,  gave  im- 
pressions and  character-studies  of  all  sorts  of  Irish 
thinkers  and  workers,  intellectual  and  artistic  and 
industrial,    Catholic,    Protestant,    and    Presbyterian. 
A  belief  in  man's  innate  worth  and  divinity  was  im- 


8        THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

plicit  in  its  philosophy ;  it  suggested  that  four  and  a 
half  millions  of  people  who  could  not  make  Ireland 
more  human  and  attractive  than  she  was  as  a  whole 
ought  to  be  ashamed  of  themselves.  It  expressed 
on  occasion  the  theories  of  progressive  and  eager 
clerical  friends  regarding  cleric  and  laic,  Church  and 
nation  ;  theories  which  are  made  clear  in  subsequent 
pages.  There  was  no  suggestion  of  clash  with  the 
"  Church,"  there  were  necessary  differences  with 
Churchmen,  in  some  of  which  clerical  contributors 
and  friends  were  unanimously  with  me,  in  regard  to 
others  they  were  divided  or  undecided.  Everything 
was  freely  and  fully  discussed  by  both  lay  and 
clerical  writers ;  there  was  a  bracing  stress  of  thought 
and  proclamation  of  ideal  reflective  of  the  younger 
Ireland  of  the  day.  The  first  great  cause  of  differ- 
ence with  the  Catholic  bishops  and  conservative 
ecclesiastics  generally  arose  over  the  British  Educa- 
tion Bill  of  1906,  some  of  us  maintaining  that  the 
Irish  Party  had  no  business  to  interfere  in  the  British 
educational  realm,  that  in  this  as  in  other  things  it 
gave  its  own  avowed  case  away,  at  the  instigation  or 
dictation  of  the  Hierarchy.  The  matter,  bound  up 
with  various  other  matters,  need  not  now  be  dis- 
cussed. A  further  burning  question  was  that  of  the 
management  and  control  of  Irish  primary  education. 
It  was  raised  incidentally  in  our  editorial  columns 
at  an  early  stage,  and  afterwards  treated  more  ex- 
haustively, while  lay  and  clerical  contributors  debated 
it  with  spirit.  The  conservative  clerical  stand  was 
strongly  against  any  lay  control  in  any  circumstances  ; 
young  priests  admitted  lay  rights  in  certain  circum- 
stances.    The  advocacy  of  free  libraries  and  various 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

other  things  brought  further  trouble.  Altogether, 
the  Irish  Peasant  of  1906,  though  it  was  constructive 
and  conciliatory  as  well  as  critical,  illustrated,  and 
no  doubt  accentuated,  the  difference  between  the 
old  order  and  a  more  hopeful  new  order  of  Irish 
ecclesiastics.  There  was  also  the  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  older  priests  that,  as  a  friendly  young 
priest  informed  me,  it  was  "  telling  the  people  too 
much."  For  some  months  the  pressure  brought  to 
bear  on  the  M'Cann  family  was  strong  and  at  times 
subtle.  At  length,  in  December  1906,  Cardinal 
Logue  intervened.  Mr.  John  M'Cann  received  a 
remarkable  missive  from  his  Eminence. 

The  Cardinal  said  he  found  that  the  Irish 
Peasant  "was  becoming  a  most  pernicious  anti- 
Catholic  print."  Its  columns  were  open  to  all  kinds 
of  characters  to  ventilate  their  anti-clerical  views.  As 
it  was  published  on  the  borders  of  his  archdiocese,  to 
guard  the  people  for  whom  he  was  responsible  "  from 
its  poisonous  influence,"  he  would  be  obliged  to  de- 
nounce it  publicly  and  prohibit  the  reading  of  it  in 
the  archdiocese.^ 

Mr.  M'Cann's  mother,  who  was  the  actual  owner 
of  the  paper,  was  greatly  distressed  by  this  com- 
munication. She  did  not  inquire  curiously  into  the 
difference  between  Catholicity  and  clericalism,  or  be- 
tween religion  and  ecclesiastical  politics  or  preferences. 
The  family  had  also  particular  ecclesiastical  ties  and 
connections,  as  well  as  special  business  concerns — 
including  a  stockbroking  firm  with  clerical  clients — 

^  I  published  the  text  of  the  letter  later  on,  when  the  whole  question 
was  the  subject  of  comment  at  home  and  abroad.  Personally,  though  the 
judgment  astonished  me,  I  have  never  doubted  that  the  Cardinal  acted 
according  to  his  own  sense  of  duty. 


10       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

and  were  altogether  in  a  peculiar  position.     Already 
they  had  been  troubled  considerably  by  clerical  pres- 
sure, direct  and  indirect.     This  last  bolt  was  too 
much  for  INIi-s.  M'Cann,  and  she  decided  to  discon- 
tinue the  publication   of  the    paper   forthwith.      I 
decided  that  if  at  all  possible  I  would  continue  it 
independently,  and  from  Dublin.     At  the  moment 
there  was  also  a  suggestion — it  was  not  originally 
my    own    and     was    rather    casually    adopted — of 
appealing  to  Rome   on  the  question  of  Catholicity 
raised    by   the    cardinal.       However,   in   the    corre- 
spondence   I   had   with   him,   he   first   expressed    a 
strong  doubt  that  he  had   described  the  paper  as 
"  anti-Catholic,"    and    finally    it   appeared   that   he 
meant  it  was  anti- clerical,    or  that  it  raised   ques- 
tions which  ecclesiastics  considered  disturbing.    The 
mention  of  Rome  in  an  emergency  number  of  the 
Peasant,  published  in  Dublin  at  Christmas-time,  in 
which  I  explained  the  situation  and  the  "  suppres- 
sion," brought  me  curious  expressions  of  incredulity, 
astonishment,  and  protest,  all  from  Catholics.    I  was 
told — what  I  did  not  know — that  there  was  no  use 
in  troubling  Rome,  as  the  Vatican  was  in  a  state  of 
alarm  and  excitement  over  France,  what   came  to 
be  called  Modernism,  &c.,  and  furthermore — which 
I  knew  perfectly  well — that  Rome  in  any  case  had 
no  right  or  title  to  interfere  or  lay  down  the  law  in 
Irish  aff"au's.      "  Don't  appeal  to  Rome ;  it's  worse 
than  Parliamentarianism,"  wrote  an  Irish  editor,     I 
duly  explained  that  Rome  had  been  mentioned  only 
in  regard  to   the   question   of   Catholicity  or  anti- 
Catholicity.      Some    of  our   ecclesiastics  were  very 
ready  to  try  to  frighten   simple   people  by  raising 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

the  cry  of  "  anti-Catholic  "  on  slight  or  no  provoca- 
tion, and  it  was  time  to  show  them  that  we  had 
no  intention  of  enduring  it,  also  that  on  questions 
of  Catholicity  pure  and  simple  Cardinal  Logue  was 
not  the  final  authority.  As  to  any  Irish  domestic 
or  national  or  other  question — school  management 
or  otherwise — disjjussed  in  the  Irish  Feasant,  Rome 
of  course,  I  said,  had  nothing  to  do.  A  pronounce- 
ment from  the  Pope  himself  on  anything  Irish  could 
only  be  treated  on  its  merits ;  it  would  settle  no- 
thing ;  we  would  take  or  reject  it  just  as  we  deemed 
proper.  An  order  of  a  Pope  to  a  particular  country, 
as  Newman  had  shown  in  his  famous  **  Letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk  "  on  Papal  Infallibility,  was  in  no 
way  binding  and  could  be  resisted  or  ignored.  Any- 
how, once  the  Cardinal  left  the  "  anti-Catholic  "  note 
I  considered  that  my  own  point  had  been  gained, 
and  I  troubled  no  more  about  the  matter  one  way 
or  the  other. 

As  to  the  continuance  of  the  paper,  while  I  had 
no  hesitation  myself  as  to  the  duty,  and  while  many 
of  the  younger  priests,  like  the  progressive  laity, 
agreed  heartily  with  me,  the  position  was  difficult 
and  complicated.  First  of  all  the  great  majority 
of  us  had  little  or  no  money ;  almost  every  ardent 
friend,  to  use  the  country  phrase,  was  "  as  poor  as 
a  church  mouse."  Again,  while  there  was  a  strong 
feeling  generally  that  the  Cardinal  had  been  unjust 
or  had  blundered,  it  was  felt  in  many  quarters  that, 
right  or  wrong,  the  "  Church "  generally  would 
support  him,  that  the  Irish  Peasant's  successor 
would  be  banned  far  and  wide ;  that  while  readers 
could  be  gathered,  advertisers  would  be  frightened  ; 


12       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

that  generally  speaking  an  already  difficult  situation 
— the  Portarlington  battle,  described  later,  was  in 
progress — would  be  further  complicated.  Curiously 
enough,  amongst  those  who  doubted  and  hesitated  the 
most  were  Protestants.  Some  of  them  in  the  Gaelic 
League  were  exceedingly  nervous  at  the  thought 
of  what  would  surely  be  described  as  "a  paper 
to  fight  the  priests."  I  had  been  elected  a  member 
of  the  Gaelic  League  executive  some  months  earlier, 
and  my  membership  would  bring  the  connection 
home.  The  spirit  of  the  rank  and  file,  however, 
was  much  more  militant  than  the  official  spirit. 
Meanwhile  the  arrangements  for  the  new  series  of 
the  Peasant  proceeded  in  Dublin,  and  the  first  num- 
ber was  issued  in  February  1907.  Pessimists  said 
the  paper  would  live  for  three  months,  optimists  said 
six.  I,  although  I  knew  our  deplorable  financial 
weakness  much  better  than  optimists  or  pessimists, 
thought  that  with  a  struggle,  and  by  being  satisfied 
with  apostolic  poverty — there  was  a  very  small  staff 
at  first,  and  never  an  adequate  one — we  might  hold 
the  field  for  twelve.  We  did  ;  in  fact,  at  the  end  of 
two  years,  when  we  changed  the  name  of  the  paper 
to  the  Irish  Nation,  we  felt  cheerily  alive  under 
difficulties.  There  had  been  an  acute  financial  crisis 
about  once  eveiy  three  months.  The  starting  of  a 
printing  business,  partly  designed  to  keep  together 
as  many  members  of  the  old  concern  as  possible,  and 
the  founding  of  a  municipal  paper  at  a  later  stage, 
were  not  exactly  beneficial  moves ;  but  one  had  to 
learn  by  experience,  and  in  those  years  what  I 
learned  about  Ireland  and  myself  was  encyclopaedic. 
The    struggle    was    arduous,    exciting,    and    joyous. 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

Despite  all  that  unfriendly  clerics  could  do  against 
the  paper  in  towns  and  country  places  its  circulation 
was  good ;  the  advertisement  fortunes  were  neces- 
sarily much  weaker,  (We  declined  to  take  whisky 
advertisements,  &c, ;  some  thought  quixotically.) 
It  was  wider  in  scope  than  our  weekly  of  the  Boyne 
Valley  days,  but  more  critical  on  occasion ;  neces- 
sarily so,  as  bishops  and  others  had  become  more 
militant,  especially  on  questions  of  education.  I 
had  clerical  contributors  and  supporters  from  Doctors 
of  Divinity  to  curates.  Reams  of  enlightening  corre- 
spondence arrived  every  week.  Literary,  dramatic, 
political,  industrial,  and  social  matters  all  came 
within  our  province.  Through  the  Gaelic  League 
and  other  bodies,  from  industrial  to  mystical,  life 
was  wonderfully  widened,  and  the  everyday  experi- 
ence of  two  languages  was  decidedly  stimulating. 
The  home  and  foreign  visitors  to  the  modest  editorial 
room  in  that  unpretending  Dublin  street  were 
original  and  entertaining  studies  in  themselves. 
Maynoothmen,  Americans,  Frenchmen,  farmers, 
modernists,  Celtic  poets,  cattle  drivers,  schoolmasters, 
politicians,  and  scores  of  others  came.  At  a  couple 
of  stages  when  life  was  exceptionally  toilsome  and 
exciting,  I  found  what  the  reader  may  consider 
a  peculiar  species  of  recreation  and  distraction  in  the 
writing  of  novels,  the  first  in  English,  the  second  in 
Irish.  Both  dealt  with  contemporary  Irish  life  and 
thought,  both  contained  characters  based  on  actual 
people.  The  first.  The  Plough  and  the  Cross,  was 
an  effort,  amongst  other  things,  to  interpret  the 
subjective  side  of  what  objectively  was  more  or  less 
familiar  to  thousands ;  I  found  the  task  and  experi- 


14       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

ence  singularly  exhilarating.  One  story  added  to 
the  difficulties,  both  to  the  surprises  of  life.  The 
Plough  and  the  Cross,  both  on  its  serial  publication 
in  the  Irish  JSation  and  its  issue  in  book  form, 
irritated  conservative  clerics  to  an  astonishing 
degree.  It  was  treated  as  diabolical  propagandism, 
and  a  malignant  attack  on  episcopacy  and  clergy; 
in  the  words  of  a  priest,  who  wrote  a  long  series 
of  articles  against  it  in  a  Dublin  weekly,  the  writer 
"  lashed  out  with  all  his  might  against  priests  and 
bishops  in  Ireland."  Strangely  enough  well-known 
priests  with  high  Irish  ideals  figured  largely  in  the 
story,  and  their  characters  and  conceptions  were  of 
course  unfolded  with  the  utmost  s^Tupathy.  Still, 
it  simply  sowed  wrath  in  extreme  clerical  quarters. 
And  as  it  seemed  as  lightsome  to  others  as  it  seemed 
darksome  to  them  it  might  be  considered  a  peculiar 
production.  The  fact  is  it  was  a  piece  of  Ireland 
seen  from  within  and  presented  in  a  detached  spirit. 
The  later  Irish  story  concerned  less  exciting  but  at 
times  more  esoteric  themes,  and  the  surprise  was  the 
measure  of  interest  displayed  by  young  and  old 
readers  in  just  this  unfamiliar  ground. 

As  time  went  on  the  Irish  Nation  concerned 
itself  with  more  and  more  phases  of  Irish  life  and 
fortune,  and  for  that  matter  misfortune.  Hard  as 
the  battle  was  with  the  more  rigid  and  formalistic 
clerics,  the  greater  trouble  arose  out  of  social  rather 
than  clerical  issues.  Theories  and  truths,  regarding 
the  rights  of  laymen  and  nation,  for  which  the 
Irish  Peasant  had  fought,  came  to  be  widely 
accepted,  but  a  great  deal  of  our  later  social 
criticism    and    suggestion    caused    alarm    and    an- 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

tagonism.  On  labour  questions,  housing  questions, 
problems  of  rural  lives  quite  untouched  by  land 
purchase  or  co-operation,  and  in  numerous  other 
encounters  with  vested  interests  or  social  selfishness 
our  progi'amme  proved  distinctly  disturbing.  What 
the  Irish  Nation  called  applied  Christianity  was 
described  by  the  anti-social  as  '*  Socialism,"  and  that 
was  assumed  to  be  diabolical.  Others,  especially 
those  who  accepted  one  or  other  official  political 
party  policy,  would  have  the  consideration  of  social 
ills  and  sores  put  away  pending  the  triumph  of  the 
policy  in  the  unveiled  and  idealised  future.  Mean- 
while more  and  more  of  the  nation  might  decay  or 
emigrate.  Towards  the  end  of  1910,  after  four  years 
of  a  struggle  of  a  record  kind  in  Ireland,  and  five 
years  of  Irish  editing  altogether,  I  found  it  im- 
possible to  get  any  further  for  the  time.  We  had 
even  less  funds  than  usual,  which  is  saying  a  good 
deal ;  the  younger  people  who  were  on  our  side  were 
little  better  circumstanced ;  we  had  helped  much  to 
win  a  few  big  battles,  like  that  against  the  bishops 
over  Irish  in  the  university ;  we  could  make  no  more 
headway  with  social  questions,  or  others  like  the 
control  of  education,  till  the  national  legislative 
question  were  done  with.  Whatever  one  may  think 
of  "  Home  Rule,"  whether  it  is  good  or  bad,  a 
"national  settlement"  or  "more  Imperialism,"  or 
anything  else,  the  working  or  waiting  for  it  means 
that  several  urgent  things  are  "  held  up,"  or  saved 
from  being  tackled,  in  Ireland.  For  the  rest,  I  saw 
that  the  Irish  Nation  would  need  to  be  re-organised 
on  a  better  financial  basis  and  an  adequate  staff 
provided   if  it   were   to   be  made  effective   for   the 


16       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

varied  work  that  still  needed  to  be  done.  Mean- 
while, especially  after  my  somewhat  exciting  ex- 
periences as  a  story-teller,  I  wanted  to  write  a  book 
or  two.  So  the  eventful  pioneer  press-work  was 
suspended  at  the  end  of  1910,  to  the  relief  of  some 
and  the  deep  regret  of  more.  We  had  had  five  years 
of  storm  and  charm. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   ISLE   OF   EXTREMES 

Students  of  the  Hindu  Bhagavad  Gita — which 
has  been  an  inspiration  to  a  number  of  people  in 
Dubhn — are  familiar  with  what  is  called  "raising 
the  self  by  the  Self,"  that  is  to  say,  purifying  and 
exalting  the  ordinary  selfish  nature,  the  ever}day 
personal  self,  through  realisation  and  application  of 
more  and  more  of  the  higher  Self,  the  hidden  Divinity, 
the  inner  Christos,  the  Son  of  the  Father,  the  Light 
that  enlighteneth  every  man,  as  it  has  been  named 
in  turn.  It  is  one  of  the  Hindu  doctrines  that,  seri- 
ously considered,  are  kindred  to  facts  and  phases  of 
esoteric  and  mystical  Christianity.  It  means  indeed 
a  realisation  and  utilisation  of  the  divine  truth  that 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  within  you.  "  There  is 
no  purifier  in  this  world  to  be  compared  to  spiritual 
knowledge,"  says  Krishna  in  the  same  book,  wherein, 
as  in  other  works,  the  idea  and  its  practical  bearing 
are  unfolded  in  many  ways.  At  one  stage  it  is 
pointed  out  that  he  who  has  attained  to  meditation — 
in  this  oriental  scriptural  sense — should  constantly 
strive  to  stay  at  rest  in  the  Supreme,  remaining  in 
solitude  and  seclusion,  having  his  body  and  his 
thoughts  under  control.  "  For  the  self's  purification 
he  should  practise  meditation  with  his  mind  fixed  on 
one  point,  the  modifications  of  the  thinking  principle 
controlled  and  the  actions  of  the  senses  and  organs 


18       THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

restrained,"  This  is  a  higher  form  of  the  concentra- 
tion, or  one-pointedness,  of  which  students  of  such 
lore  and  ethics  learn  so  much.  The  most  interesting 
Irishman,  I  think,  of  the  period  once  gave  us  in 
Dublin  a  graphic  and  humorous  description  of  his 
own  early  efforts  in  concentration.  He  is  one  of 
our  greatest  and  most  practical  pioneers.  Practical 
people  often  mean  people  who  are  practically  dead, 
but  he  is  intensely  alive  and  ardent,  the  best  example 
I  know  of  the  visionary  as  worker.  But  his  initial 
experiences  with  one  -  pointedness  were  terrific. 
Whether  he  concentrated  his  thoughts  on  "an 
illuminated,  selfless  Brahmin,  a  cow,  an  elephant, 
a  dog,  an  outcast,"  a  lyric,  a  lotus,  or  the  Liffey  at 
O'Connell  Bridge,  it  was  all  the  same.  He  was  con- 
scious at  once  of  a  sense  of  interior  exaltation  and  a 
desire  to  arise  and  slay  those  who  were  nearest  and 
dearest  to  him.  The  good  he  slowly  developed  was 
accompanied  by  an  intolerable  share  of  impassioned 
evil.  The  progression  to  the  condition  of  the  "  har- 
monised man  "  was  both  thrilling  and  painful. 

The  latter-day  Ireland  in  which  we  are  interested 
has  illustrated  some  such  duality  on  a  large  scale. 
There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  self-recovery,  of  vision, 
of  ideation,  of  a  passion  to  realise  fine  ideals ;  there  has 
been  an  intensity  of  concentration — in  the  educational 
order  and  others.  This  has  been  mostly  beautiful, 
but  sometimes  a  little  violent,  unreasonable,  and 
extravagant ;  and  all  the  time  it  has  led  to  stiffening, 
antagonism,  a  thirst  for  repression,  yet  now  and  then 
capitulation  and  conversion  in  other  parts  of  the  body 
politic.  Agricultural  co-operators  have  disturbed 
certain  politicians   and   sundry  shopkeepers,  Gaelic 


THE   ISLE   OF   EXTREMES  19 

Leaguers  have  angered  very  different  principalities 
and  powers,  broad-minded  and  Irish-minded  priests 
have  clashed  with  rigid  and  un- Irish  politico-clerical 
tradition,  Modernists  and  theosophists  in  the  broad 
sense  have  begun  the  breaking  of  crusted  ecclesiasti- 
cal jurisprudence  and  have  released  spirit,  a  more 
human  and  Christian  social  ideal  has  shocked  world- 
liness  in  high  places,  clerical  and  lay;  and  so  on. 
Hence,  as  in  our  friend's  individual  case,  the  pro- 
gression has  meant  pain  and  strife  as  well  as  thrill. 
If  we  dwelt  merely  on  the  actual  clash  and  combat 
and  the  sometime  impassioned  language  our  record 
would  be  rather  vexatious.  We  must  always  try  to 
see  and  remember  the  underlying  ideal,  the  explain- 
ing vision,  the  essential  points  of  view.  We  must 
also  remember  that  even  the  conservative  and  the 
repressive  have  other  and  worthy  sides.  Bishops 
who  declaim  against  thought  and  appear  to  dread 
progress,  parish  priests  who  resist  lay  rights,  do 
helpful  and  sacred  work  in  their  own  proper  spheres 
week  in  week  out. 

The  situation  is  made  more  dramatic  and  more 
difficult  by  several  causes  but  little  understood  abroad. 
Thus  it  is  usually  assumed  that  what  is  called  the 
"  religious  difficulty  "  in  Ireland  arises  from  the  clash 
of  Catholicism  and  Protestantism.  We  do  not  see 
any  such  clash  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the 
country,  and  where  we  do  see  it  it  is  seldom  the  fault 
of  the  democracy  on  either  side,  at  least  primarily. 
Far  greater  difficulties  lie  within  the  very  mixed  Irish 
Catholic  world  itself.  One  or  other  of  them  meets 
the  Irish  pioneer,  intellectual,  industrial,  or  otherwise, 
at  every  point. 


K 


20       THE    POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

In  the  first  place,  Catholicism  in  many  rural  dis- 
tricts  and   towns    has  long   been   marred  by   over- 
growths   that    have    nothing   to    do    with    essential 
Catholicity.       This   is   shown    in    some  astonishing 
beliefs,  especially  about  the  priesthood.     In  regard 
to  these  latter  the  explanation  is  many-sided.     In 
the  penal  days,  the  tragic  times  of  Irish  Catholicism, 
priests  and  people  suffered  together,  and_the_^riest- 
hood,  speaking  generally,  was  in  due  course  Meahsed::- 
Throughout  the  nineteenth  century  the  priests  lived 
comfortably  on  that  tradition,  and  did  little  them- 
selves in  the  new  conditions  to  deserve  the  continued 
idolising.     As  the  Gaelic  order  of  things,  after  wars 
and  famines,   penal  laws  and  emigration,   and  the 
establishment  of  a  deliberately  un-Irish  or  anti-Irish 
educational  system,  began  to  lose  its  last  holds,  great 
confusion  arose.     The  official  Church  on  tlie-xdiole 
had  become  an  anglicising  agency  in  Maynooth  and 
outside  it.     Whatever  its  reasons,  it  was  on  the  side 
of  English  policy  and  projects  against  what  remained 
of  the  Irish  national  idea  and  the  Irish  conception 
of  civilisation.     To   folk  who  mostly  spoke  Irish,  to 
folk  who  thought  in  Irish  and  spoke  a  mixture  of 
good  Irish  and  broken  English,  to  folk  who  mostly 
spoke  broken  English,  the  sermons  preached  and  the 
religious  instruction  tendered  came  to  be  more  and 
more  in  English,  and  a  verbose,  extravagant  English 
they  could  not  possibly  understand.     In  the  primary 
schools,  of  which  the  priests  were  made  managers, 
not  of  course  by  Irish  popular  choice,  but  by  English 
enactment,  the  amazing  policy  of  teaching,  or  trying 
to  teach,   Irish-speaking  and   partly  Irish-speaking 
children   through    English    alone   was    relentlessly 


THE    ISLE    OF   EXTREMES  21 

pursued.  There  are  churches  and  schools  of  which 
the  same  may  be  said  to-day ;  there  has  been  a  good 
deal  of  agitation  about  them  in  the  last  ten  or 
fifteen  years.  That  all  this  should  lead  to  mental  con- 
fusion regarding  religion  and  the  priesthood  can  well 
be  imagined.  All  the  time  the  active  and  untrained 
folk  fancy  was  itself  at  work  and  wrought  its  own 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  marvels.  Eventually 
in  rural  places  the  priest  in  the  folk  conception  had 
become  a  wonder-worker,  a  sacred  magician.  He 
could  work  miracles  at  will,  he  could  turn  obstreperous 
sinners  into  animals,  to  quarrel  with  him  was 
unlucky  in  the  gravest  degree.  Such  beliefs  were 
common  in  my  youthful  days  in  the  country  ;  those 
who  had  come  to  doubt  them  were  regarded  as 
daring  sceptics.  They  are  held  still  in  various 
places,  but  the  scepticism  is  now  more  general.  I 
have  never  known  of  a  case  in  which  a  priest  spoke 
out  publicly  against  them.  Indeed,  the  notion  of 
mysterious  priestly  power  is  tacitly  encouraged  by 
ajQumber  af  the  Catholic  clergy.  Apparently  they 
would  fain  have  the  people  regard  them  as  potent  local 
successors  to  that  magical  St.  Patrick — the  hero  of  the 
great  Irish  clerical  epic — with  whom  I  deal  in  other  _ 
pages.  Some  Irish  Catholic  laymen  whose  reason  / 
rebels  against  this  whole  folk-lore  conception  of  the 
priesthood  have  yet  a  curious  feeling,  when  they 
come  into  opposition  to  priests  over  social,  educa- 
tional, or  intellectual  issues,  that  they  contend  in  a 
sense  with  the  occult  and  the  unknown.  There  is  a 
touch  of  weirdness  in  the  air. 

Again,  a  gi'eat  deal  of  the  theology,  history,  &c., 
propounded   by  many    Irish    priests   is    crude,   old- 


22       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

fashioned,  or  materialistic.  It  has  stern,  sombre, 
barbaric  phases.  It  has  much  more  relation  to  the 
Old  Testament  than  to  the  New.  Indeed,  not  a 
little  of  what  was  hardest  and  grimmest  in  Judaism 
has  been  turned  to  their  purpose  and  is  preached 
with  a  vengeance.  Their  material  Hell  is  horrible 
melodrama ;  they  have  done  much  to  make  of  us 
a  Devil-obsessed  people.  They  take  Genesis  with 
bald  literalness,  their  world  is  just  6000  years  old, 
to  them  everything  before  the  Christian  era,  except 
more  or  less  of  Judaism,  was  heathenism  wild  or 
foul.  Of  any  philosophy  of  involution  and  evolution 
they  reck  nothing  or  accept  nothing.  Catholic 
philosophy  generally  seems  a  sealed  or  an  unused 
book  to  them ;  their  sermons  and  their  avowedly 
religious  books  or  booklets  are  innocent  thereof. 
Progressive  priests  voice  their  feelings  on  the  want 
with  great  candour.  The  general  sermons  and 
magazine  articles  are  pietistic,  emotional,  rhetorical, 
verbose,  controversial,  or  boastful  in  turn,  but  few 
that  I  have  ever  heard  or  read — a  very  large 
number  indeed — breathe  the  finer  spirit  of  Catho- 
licity. Numerous  Irish  priests,  who  in  themselves 
are  earnest  and  zealous  personalities,  do  not  seem 
to  try  or  care  to  put  their  better  selves  into  their 
addresses.  They  often  appear  to  have  a  rather  in- 
different opinion  of  the  mentality  of  their  congre- 
gations. Furthermore,  a  considerable  proportion  of 
them  apparently  cannot  use  language,  in  public  at 
all  events,  with  any  sense  of  mastery,  responsibility, 
or  style.  It  would  often  be  exceedingly  unkind  to 
judge  an  Irish  priest  by  his  language.  It  mis- 
represents, even  parodies,  rather  than  typifies,  him- 


THE   ISLE   OF   EXTREMES  23 

self.     He    is    more   human   and  more  natural  than 
his  speech  or  his  writing. 

Another  great  trouble  is  that  so  much  of  the 
priesthood  has  now  no  particular  apostolic  or  evan- 
gelical sense ;  it  is  largely  professional,  highly 
formalistic,  afraid  of  new  ideas,  hazy  in  its  notions 
of  the  outer  world,  even  of  the  progressive  Catholic 
elements  thereof;  alarmed,  above  all  things,  over  any 
and  every  development  of  '*  Socialism  "  :  it  has  lost 
the  old  collectivist  Catholic  ideal.  Above  the  priest- 
hood reigns  the  episcopacy,  which,  as  a  whole,  is 
still  more  formalistic,  more  fearful  of  human  nature, 
more  remote  from  social  and  intellectual  realities, 
more  inimical  to  nearly  all  things  distinctively  Irish ; 
an  alien  institution  for  the  most  part,  but  one  that 
in  this  century  is  steadily  losing  its  prestige.  A 
few  members,  mostly  later  appointments^  recognise 
and  sympathise  with  vital  Irish  ideas,  and  so  possess 
some  living  influence.  But,  generally  speaking,  the 
episcopacy  is  regarded  by  progressive  priests  and 
active  laymen  as  the  obedient  servant  of  the  Vatican 
and  its  diplomatic  and  political  policy,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  a  check,  so  far  as  circumstances  allow, 
on  the  development  of  a  distinctive  and  cultured 
Irish  nation,  on  the  other.  Apparently  it  does  not 
want  thought  or  overmuch  culture  and  native  spirit 
at  home,  and  it  desires  more  and  more  of  the  Irish 
race  to  go  abroad  as  missionaries  of  one  kind  or 
another.  Its  policy  and  predilections  at  all  events 
are  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  its  personalities  as 
a  rule  are  not  rated  high  by  the  young  generation. 
An  able  young  priest  summed  up  the  matter  rather 
mordantly  for  me  one  day  in  Dublin:  "Every  man 


24       THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

of  individuality  makes  mistakes.  No  man  who  makes 
mistakes  is  made  a  bishop.  Consequently  ,  ,  ," 
Over  the  capable  and  advanced  young  priests  the 
bishops  are  apt  to  exercise  their  power  autocratically, 
and  in  present  circumstances  the  young  clerics  them- 
selves can  only  endm-e  and  hope.  The  knowledge 
of  such  autocratic  action,  however,  has  sharpened 
and  intensified  the  freer  lay  criticism  of  recent  years. 
There  is  a  further  most  interesting  factor,  new 
if  supei-ficially  regai'ded,  but  really  the  recovery,  re- 
manifestation,  and  development  of  a  long-dormant  or 
neglected  force.  This  is  represented  by  the  Gaelic 
League,  and  already  we  can  see  that  not  only  has 
it  consciously  affected  the  national  outlook  and 
inlook,  but  that  unconsciously  it  has  affected  the 
religious  or  theological  position  in  more  ways  than 
one.  In  the  national  order  it  has  given  effect  to 
truths  that  many  forgot  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  that  most  Irish  people,  especially  leaders,  never 
dreamt  of  in  the  nineteenth  century.  As  to  the 
other  order,  it  need  only  be  noted  at  this  point 
that  pld^Gaelic  ideas  about  man  and  wamaa-and 
life  show  much  that  is  markedly  diffej:efit_irpm  the 
general  Eoman  view.  Even  in  the  mediaeval  Gael's 
philosophy,  while  there  was  a  decided  Roman  ele- 
ment, a  very  human  Gael  remained  withal.  Gradually 
the  Gael  receded  or  shrank,  or  seemed  to  do  so ; 
from  an  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  centuiy  con- 
ventional "Irish  history"  pays  little  attention  to 
him ;  Swift,  the  Volunteers,  Grattan's  Parliament, 
&c.,  occupy  the  stage.  He  was  there  withal;  he 
was  strong  in  some  respects  and  had  his  own  dis- 
tinctive   inner    life,  if  a   lowly    outer   one,   till    the 


THE    ISLE    OF   EXTREMES  25 

Famine  of  1846-7.  Even  in  the  succeeding  five 
decades,  though  still  less  regarded  and  reckoned 
with,  he  kept  a  certain  vitality,  as  we  shall  see. 
The  Gaelic  continuity  was  never  broken.  And  to  the 
terms  "Gael"  and  "Gaelic"  we  are  not  necessarily 
to  attach  a  particular  racial  significance.  I  mean 
by  the  Gael  a  unit  or  type  of  the  age-old  civilisa- 
tion that  expressed  itself  through  Irish,  ancient, 
middle,  or  modern.  This  civilisation,  when  it  was 
strong,  absorbed  Normans  and  others.  Dr.  Geofii'ey 
Keating  himself,  the  early  modern  Irish  classic, 
was  of  the  type  known  as  "  Sean-Ghall,"  the  old 
or  early-settling  foreigner.  Now,  for  a  decade  and 
a  half,  w4th  the  Gaelic  League  and  its  develop- 
ments, direct  and  indu'ect,  we  have  the  Gael  again, 
very  much  alive  in  places.  Thousands  have  been 
given  a  new  vision  and  impulse.  The  Church  itself 
— as  the  "  Church  "  is  popularly  understood — is  not 
easy  in  its  mind  about  it  all,  and  we  shall  see  the 
why  and  the  wherefore.  It  is  a  many-sided  case. 
For  one  thing  we  have  come  to  hear  declarations 
of  a  self-realisation,  a  recovery  of  the  romance  of 
life,  a  sense  of  the  hero  in  man — ancestral  man 
and  the  man  of  to-day — that  ring  like  heresy  on 
the  ears  of  our  older  ecclesiastics,  and  of  some  who 
are  not  old.  "To  me,"  said  one  of  our  most  noted 
Irishmen  some  years  ago,  "  it  seems  that  here  the 
task  of  teacher  and  writer  is  above  all  to  present 
images  of  divine  manhood  to  the  people  whose  real 
gods  have  always  been  their  heroes.  Those  Titan 
figures,  Cuchulainn,  Fionn,  Oscar,  Oisin,  Caoilte,;^all 
a  mixed  gentleness  and  fire,  have  commanded  for 
generations  that  spontaneous  love  which  is  the  only 


26       THE   POPES    GREEX   ISLAND 

true  worship  paid  by  man.  It  is  because  of  this 
profound  and  long-enduring  love  for  the  heroes, 
which  must  be  considered  as  forecasting  the  future, 
that  I  declare  the  true  ideal  and  destiny  of  the  Celt 
in  this  island  to  be  the  begetting  of  a  humanity 
whose  desires  and  visions  shall  rise  above  earth  into 
god-like  nature."  This  may  seem  too  beautifully 
romantic,  save  in  one's  highest  moments,  but  un- 
doubtedly with  the  new  traits  and  trend  of  Gaeldom 
there  has  come  a  sense  of  a  more  spacious  and  a 
more  intimate  Ireland  than  the  last  generation 
knew,  and,  what  is  better  than  reahsing  the  heroic 
life  of  the  past,  young  hearts  and  minds  are  inspired 
to  evoke  heroic  life  in  the  present  and  in  them- 
selves, individually  and  collectively,  ^^^lat  is  best 
in  young  Ireland  may  often  nowadays  have  a  critical 
and  challenging  outlook,  but  it  has  an  optimistic 
and  joyous  inlook.  While  bishops  and  other 
ecclesiastics  deliver  alarmed  and  woeful  pronounce- 
ments that  are  really  a  criticism  of  human  nature, 
this  eager  young  Ireland  believes  more  and  more  in 
a  certain  divinity  inherent  in  human  nature.  And 
here  of  course  is  really  a  clash  of  two  old  religious, 
indeed  two  Christian,  theories.  Here  is  the  im- 
memorial contrast  of  the  exoteric  and  the  esoteric, 
the  ephemeral  and  the  mystical  view.  On  the  one 
hand,  looking  to  the  passing,  personal  man,  the 
superficial  life,  we  have  the  theory  of  the  miserable 
sinner,  the  human  worm,  with  no  godliness  in  him ; 
on  the  other  we  have  a  sense  of  the  higher  self,  the 
divine  ego,  in  whom  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
Nothing  is  more  notable  in  Ireland  than  this  con- 
trast between  the  implicit  faith  of  lay  workers  and 


THE    ISLE   OF   EXTREMES  27 

some  rising  priests  and  the  explicit  pessimism  of  the 
o^eneralitv  of  ecclesiastics.  Non-believers,  we  are 
given  to  understand,  are  the  trouble  in  other  lands. 
We  are  banned  in  Ireland,  or  rather  some  would 
like  to  ban  us,  for  believing  too  much. 

While  such  extremes  meet  in  our  island  there  are 
other  extremes  which  do  not  meet,  and  know  nothing 
of  one  another.  There  is  extraordinary  diversity  in 
the  social  and  intellectual  conditions,  and  there  are 
strata  which  cannot  really  be  said  to  have  any 
"  social"  or  '"intellectual"  life  at  all.  In  these  the 
housing  and  living  conditions  are  simply  abominable  : 
I  refer,  amonorst  other  haunts,  to  citv  slum  stretches 
and  wretched  cabins  of  the  west  and  elsewhere  which 
I  have  seen  myself.  But  all  is  not  wretchedness  in 
apparently  forlorn  cabins  by  any  means.  The  Irish 
speaker  will  be  able  to  draw  out  a  store  of  traditional 
song  and  story  and  legend  again  and  again.  I  shall 
give  at  a  later  stage  a  remarkable  instance  of  what  has 
come  to  us  from  one  of  the  humblest  of  Connemara 
homes.  A  curious  point  about  many  of  their  tenants 
is  their  shadowy  and  unreal  conception  of  Dublin 
and  everything  east  of  the  Shannon,  while  of  American 
centres  like  Portland  and  Boston,  to  which  so  many 
of  their  kindred  go,  sometimes  to  return  with  their 
savings  and  settle  at  home,  they  speak  as  familiarly 
as  if  they  were  but  a  few  parishes  away.  America  is 
in  a  sense  their  metropoHs  and  market  town,  while 
some  of  them  have  seriously  asked  if  Dublin  is  a 
part  of  Ireland.  In  dealing  with  Ireland,  even 
Catholic  Ireland,  we  must  not  forget  her  variety, 
her  unconnected  strata,  her  unrelated  psychologies. 
I  have   seen  a  heroic  Ireland,   a  mediaeval  Ireland, 


28       THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

an  intensely  modern  Ireland,  and  some  Irelands  I 
would  find  it  hard  to  classify  approximately.  And 
often  I  have  felt  that  creed,  philosophy,  race-mind, 
nation,  and  all  such  system atisation  and  generalisa- 
tion are,  when  all  is  said,  incidental.  They  but  deal, 
so  to  say,  with  social,  psychic,  and  other  "  soil "  and 
environment.  The  arresting  importance  and  mystery 
is  the  "  seed  "  set  in  this  soil — the  individual  soul  in 
this  transient  but  doubtless  immensely  significant 
part  of  its  experience  and  destiny. 


CHAPTER   III 

POPE,   PRIESTS,   AND   PROTESTANTS 

So  far  as  my  experience  goes,  Englishmen  of  most 
kinds,  and  Irish  Protestants  of  some  kinds,  are 
rather  obsessed  by  the  Pope,  while  Irish  Catholics 
are  not.  In  Catholic  Ireland  most  of  the  time  the 
Pope  seems  remote  ;  a  venerable  personality  to  be 
sure  to  the  simple-hearted  masses,  but  a  little  vague  ; 
to  the  intellectual  an  occasional  problem ;  to  the 
spiritual  or  the  philosophical  a  factor  sometimes 
delicately  explained  and  sometimes  almost  explained 
away,  often  not  recked  of  at  all.  Save  on  rare 
occasions  his  Holiness  gives  no  appreciable  trouble 
to  the  minds  of  Irish  Catholics.  But  plenty  of  them, 
priests  as  well  as  laity,  sometimes  speak  with 
severity  of  his  advisers  and  of  himself  in  so  far  as 
they  and  he  are  parts  and  pillars  of  Vaticanism,  or 
the  diplomatic  and  political  side  of  Rome.  The 
general  Irish  Catholic  makes  a  clear  distinction 
between  Rome  as  a  spiritual  centre  and  Rome  as 
a  worldly  centre.  The  Vaticaii-"iiL_its--4iumaj3t---a:»d 
worldly  capacity  is  not  regarded  in  a  friendly  light 
in  Ireland ;  quite  the  contrary.  It  is  popularly 
understood  to  be  hostile  to  Irish  aspirations ;  and 
it  is  also  believed  that  its  aid  is  often  sought 
against  Ireland  or  Irishmen  by  English  statesmen 
or  diplomats,  acting,  of  course,  indirectly  or  semi- 


30       THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

officially.  In  justification  of  these  beliefs  expressive 
modern  facts  and  events  are  pointed  to,  amongst 
them  the  moral  of  the  Persico  mission  and  letters 
and  the  famous  case  of  Sir  George  Errington 
"  keeping  the  Vatican  in  good  humour" — and  letting 
Downing  Street  know  the  good  news — while  it  was 
sought  to  keep  an  ecclesiastic  with  patriotic  leanings 
out  of  the  archbishopric  of  Dublin.  The  Irish  popular 
view  that  Rome  and  England  rule  together,  but 
subtly  not  avowedly,  is  illustrated  with  mingled 
intensity  and  comedy  in  the  attitude  to  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk.  To  the  general  Irish  mind  his  Grace  is 
not  simply  a  man  or  a  duke,  but  a  colossal  incarna- 
tion of  Anglo-Roman  machination ;  when  he  is  not 
in  Rome  or  Downing  Street  he  is  on  the  road 
between  them ;  and  his  devotion  to  Rome  and 
Britain  is  only  matched  by  his  antipathy  to  Ireland. 
This  romantic  exaggeration  of  the  folk-fancy  is  only 
a  picturesque  outgrowth  of  the  general  belief  that 
the  Vatican  is  no  friend  of  Ireland's,  and  that 
England,  or  governing  England,  which  is  under- 
stood to  dislike  Rome  and  Rome  rule  in  the  abstract, 
endeavours  to  get  Rome  to  do  as  much  ruling  of  us 
as  it  can  manage.  Suggestively  enough,  when 
Vatican  or  Propaganda  has  actually  interfered  in 
Irish  national  affairs,  or  affairs  on  which  the  masses 
felt  strongly,  it  has  met  a  direct  and  decisive  defeat. 
Thus  Rome  disliked  the  Parnell  testimonial  or 
tribute  in  the  eighties,  and  "proclaimed"  it,  with 
the  result  that  it  "  swelled  wisibly,"  rapidly  rising  to 
£40,000.  I  was  only  a  schoolboy  at  the  time,  but 
clearly  remember  the  resentment  and  decisive  action 
of  the  people  in  a  district  almost  wholly  Catholic. 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  31 

Rome  was  no  more  successful  against  the  "  Plan  of 
Campaign,"  and  in  1909,  as  we  shall  see,  Cardinal 
Logue  felt  obliged  to  make  a  public  declaration  that 
Rome  had  not  directed  the  Irish  bishops  to  stand 
for  a  peculiar  type  of  Catholic  university  as  against 
the  national  institution  which  the  people  demanded. 
The  story  that  the  Vatican  and  English  Catholics — 
including  the  inevitable  Duke  of  Norfolk — wanted 
the  new  university  to  be  moulded  in  their  own  way 
roused  popular  resentment  and  embarrassed  the  pre- 
lates. Of  these  prelates  themselves  the  most  un- 
popular were  all  understood  to  have  owed  their 
elevation  to  the  episcopacy  to  English  or  anti-Irish 
influences  at  the  Vatican,  or  to  actual  Roman  dislike 
of  candidates  assumed  to  be  more  friendly  to  Irish 
ideas. 

Irish  candour  on  the  subject  of  the  machinery  of 
Rome,  and  the  sharp  distinction  drawn  by  Irish 
Catholics  between  essential  Catholicity  and  Vati- 
canism, are  no  new  story,  though  the  rising 
generation  has  still  clearer  thoughts  on  the  subject 
than  the  old.  At  the  same  time  it  is  interested  in 
numerous  new  activities,  and  Rome  the  greater  part 
of  the  time  is  quite  apart  from  its  consciousness ;  it 
only  declares  itself  on  the  matter  of  Roman  un- 
friendliness to  Ireland,  or  troubles  particularly  about 
it  when  in  one  way  or  another  it  is  brought  specially 
under  notice.  And  then  in  all  candid  discussions 
it  is  taken  for  granted  by  Irish  Catholic  laymen  and 
Irish-minded  priests  that  no  matter  what  changes  or 
evolution  may  take  place  in  the  country  the  Pope 
and  the  Vatican  will  be  pro-English  always,  never 
pro-Irish,  and  that  if  any  clash   or  trouble  should 


HE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

to  come  they  would  take  the  part  of  England 
Ireland.  Home,  for  one  thing,  illusive  as 
Im  may  appear,  expects  that  England  wiU  yet 
become  Catholic — prayers  for  "the  conversion  of 
England "  are  said  regularly  in  English  Catholic 
churches.  But  taking  facts  as  they  are  it  is  natural 
enough  that  the  Vatican  should  desire  to  conciliate 
England  in  every  possible  way,  thereby  tending 
to  make  matters  easier  for  the  Church  round 
the  empire.  As  against  a  world-power  like  the 
British  empire  Ireland  in  herself  counts  for  little  or 
nothing  at  Rome ;  at  least  that  is  the  general  Irish 
Catholic  view,  shared  by  those  Irish  priests  and  lay- 
men who  ought  to  know  something  particular  about 
Koman  policy.  Rome  looks  on  Ireland  as  a  small 
"  safe  "  place,  mainly  important  as  a  training-ground 
and  jumping-ofF  board  for  missionaries  who  will 
"spread  the  faith"  abroad.  Which  brings  us  to 
another  crucial  point.  All  the  interesting  things 
that  have  happened  in  Ireland  in  this  century  have 
been  inspired  by  the  ideal  of  making  Ireland  more 
fruitful  and  attractive  in  and  for  herself,  socially, 
industrially,  artistically,  intellectually.  We  might 
call  it  native  intensive  culture.  This  home  concen- 
tration and  creativeness  does  not  please  Rome,  so 
far  as  Rome  understands  what  is  happening,  and  it 
certainly  does  not  please  the  great  majority  of  the 
Catholic  bishops — though  they  cannot  very  well 
oppose  it  directly  and  ostensibly — who  are  the  agents 
and  pillars  of  Rome  and  its  policy.  An  educated 
Ireland,  alive  with  eager  ideals,  and  primarily  and 
mainly  interested  in  Ireland,  would  not  suit  them 
at  all.     It  would  not  be  a  submissive  Ireland — it 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  33 

would  not  say  with  the  ironical  Irish  Catholic  friend 
who  re- wrote  the  Nicene  Creed,  "  I  believe  in  one 
submissive  Catholic  flock  of  sheep  " — and  as  a  prime 
article  of  its  faith  would  be,  as  we  can  see  already,  that 
the  real  missionary  work  for  Irishmen  is  in  Ireland, 
it  would  leave  other  lands  to  provide  their  own 
apostles  for  the  most  part.  The  Irish  home  zest  and 
intensive  culture  already  in  being  explain  a  great 
deal  that  is  superficially  puzzling.  The  positive 
work,  however,  is  more  interesting  in  itself  than  in 
its  bearing  upon  any  controversy  or  side-issue. 

In  earlier  years  when  Gaelic  Leaguers  began  to 
come  into  clash  here  and  there  with  ecclesiastics 
over  issues  that  ecclesiastics  alone  had  long  decided 
— English  sermons  in  Aran  first  brought  trouble  in 
an  acute  degree — progi-essive  young  priests  as  well 
as  laymen  were  exceedingly  anxious  that  the  laity 
should  be  clear  on  the  whole  question  of  the  relation 
of  priests  and  people,  and  furthermore  on  the  relation 
of  Ireland  and  Rome.  They  saw  that  we  were 
passing  out  of  a  semi-patriarchal  and  also  somewhat 
serf-like  age,  that  much  of  the  new  generation  had 
schemes  and  purposes  of  its  own  and  would  not 
endure  the  leading-strings  of  the  old.  Hence,  with- 
out a  thorough  understanding  of  their  relative  rights 
and  positions,  a  dangerous  if  not  disastrous  division 
between  clergy  and  laity  would  almost  inevitably 
come  to  pass.  That  the  laity  had  very  decided 
rights  in  the  Church,  and  that  Churchmen  had  very 
definite  duties,  long  neglected,  to  the  nation,  were 
basic  facts  emphasised  from  the  first,  and  they  were 
enunciated  in  connection  with  current  happenings 
and    discussions,   during    our   whole   Boyne    Valley 

c 


34       THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

year,  in  the  Irish  Peasant.  Amongst  the  clergy 
who  expressed  their  philosophy  in  the  earlier  years 
none  was  more  ardent  than  the  late  Father  Michael 
Moloney,  a  cultured  young  priest,  who  lived  mostly 
in  London,  but  saw  all  he  could  of  Ireland,  where  he 
was  highly  esteemed  and  trusted.  He  organised 
the  Irish  religious  celebrations  in  Westminster 
Cathedral — incidentally  a  lesson  and  an  example  to 
home  bishops — but  they  were  soon  rendered  im- 
possible by  the  action  of  Archbishop  (now  Cardinal) 
Bourne.  Like  many  others  his  ideal  was  a  cultured 
and  Irish-minded  clergy  on  the  one  hand,  a  cultured 
and  Irish-minded  laity  on  the  other.  For  Church- 
men cultured  in  all  senses,  liberal-minded  and 
apostolic,  inspired  with  the  spirit  of  the  Church 
in  her  greatest  days,  zealous  in  the  national  order, 
tolerant  and  practical  in  the  social  sphere,  he  yearned 
with  all  his  heart.  He  desired  that  to  the  masses  in 
his  native  land  the  Church  should  stand  for  art  and 
beauty  once  more,  and  that  in  hymn  and  sermon  she 
should  be  linked  in  solemnity  and  tenderness  and 
dignity  with  the  ancestral  language.  He  was  an 
idealist  in  regard  to  the  bishops,  at  any  rate  in  high 
and  glowing  moments.  He  often  said  that  if  they 
were  inspired  with  the  Gaelic  ideal  they  could  bring 
priests  and  people  within  measurable  distance  of  its 
realisation  in  half  a  generation.  Others,  including 
young  priests,  were  pessimistic  about  the  prelates, 
and  some  of  us  said  then  and  later  that  if  the  bishops 
in  every  diocese,  and  the  priests  in  every  parish,  were 
social,  industrial,  and  intellectual  enthusiasts,  that 
would  be  no  excuse  for  even  one  layman  remaining 
inactive  or  indolent ;  we  could  not  have  a  progressive 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  35 

nation  till  all  the  elements  in  the  nation  were  alive 
and  alert,  utilising  their  powers  and  opportunities 
to  the  utmost.  Priests  could  be  co-workers  and 
welcome ;  it  would  be  all  to  the  good  ;  and  it  did  not 
seem  natural  any  way  to  have  an  ecclesiastical  order 
as  a  thing  apart,  suggesting  that  religion  was  some- 
thing isolated  from  daily  life ;  but  the  laity  would 
necessarily  be  the  main  element  in  the  working 
nation  and  its  affairs,  education  included.  It  was, 
after  all,  the  collectivist  and  co-operative  ideal  of 
Christianity  applied  to  the  nation — that  all  creeds 
believing  in  the  nation  and  its  natural  development 
should  co-operate  on  equal  terms  was  of  course  an 
axiom.  The  young  priests  agreed  generally  with 
it  all. 

When  Rome  was  mentioned  in  all  such  discussions 
it  was  invariably  assumed  that  the  Vatican  did  not 
understand  native  Irish  ideals,  and  would  never  care 
for  them  ;  that  the  Vatican,  for  the  reasons  given 
above,  would  be  pro-British  in  the  future  as  in  the 
past,  and  that,  semi-officially,  Downing  Street,  on 
any  occasion  of  trouble  or  difference,  would  seek 
to  get  the  Vatican,  acting  directly  or  through  the 
bishops,  to  serve  its  will  and  purpose  in  Ireland. 
Hence  it  was  necessary  to  understand,  and  to  get 
Irish  Catholics  generally  to  understand,  that  Vati- 
canism, political  or  diplomatic  Rome  in  any  shape  ^\ 
or  form,  is  not  Catholicism,  and  has  no  claim  what-^^^C\ 
ever  to  obedience.  In  a  large  way  the  people  had  ^ 
always  understood  that,  and  resisted  Rome  on 
political  matters  which  they  took  seriously.  It  was 
felt,  however,  that  in  the  new  day  Rome  might 
interfere  in  a  more  subtle  way.     Thus  Rome  might 


36       THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

issue  a  pronouncement  against  the  Gaelic  League 
— the  possibility,  even  the  imminence,  of  this  was 
rumoured  more  than  once  a  little  later.  It  must  be 
clearly  understood  that  this  was  none  of  Rome's 
business.  When  these  discussions  first  started,  and 
for  some  time  after  we  first  dealt  with  such  issues  in 
the  Irish  Peasant,  Ireland  was  under  the  Propaganda, 
which  the  priests  rather  resented;  she  was  afterwards 
brought  directly  under  the  Pope.  But,  Propaganda 
or  Pontiff,  it  made  no  difference.  Neither  should 
dictate  in  Irish  domestic  concerns,  and  had  no  right 
whatever  to  interfere.  For  the  guidance  of  general 
readers  we  gave  in  the  new  Peasant  a  long  sum- 
mary of  Bishop  Doyle's  expressive  declarations  in  the 
"  Essay  on  the  Catholic  Claims,"  addressed  to  Lord 
Liverpool,  also  salient  points  from  Newman's  famous 
"Letter  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk"  on  Papal  Infalli- 
bility. Newman,  replying  to  Gladstone,  limited  Papal 
infallibility  to  the  utmost ;  only  when  the  Pope 
spoke  ex  cathedra,  on  universal  issues,  to  the  Church 
as  a  whole,  could  he  be  considered  infallible.  Orders 
addressed  to  a  particular  country  or  a  particular 
class  need  not  be  obeyed.  Newman  further  main- 
tained that  a  Pope  had  no  power  over  the  conscience 
of  any  Catholic.  If  the  Pope  ordered  one  thing  and 
conscience  dictated  another — Newman  did  not  think 
such  clash  probable — the  Catholic  would  be  bound 
to  follow  conscience.  These  teachings  have  now 
spread  far  amongst  the  young  generation.  Of 
course,  while  clear  as  to  the  distinction  between 
Catholicism  and  Vaticanism,  and  determined  to  have 
no  interference  in  domestic  affairs,  the  Irish  Catholic 
may  well  deem  the  Pontiff  a  gracious  personality  and 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  37 

symbol  to  be  revered.  His  real  purpose,  as  Newman 
suggested,  is  to  guide  and  help.  But  that  he  or  his 
advisers  would  ever  help  Ireland  specially,  particularly 
against  an  opposing  English  interest,  is  not  credible 
by  the  average  Irish  Catholic.  On  Vaticanism  he  is 
a  sceptic  and  a  critic. 

When  all  is  said,  however,  it  is  mainly  bishops 
and  priests,  not  the  Pope,  that  the  Irish  Catholic  has 
to  take  into  practical  account,  and  his  later  relations 
towards  these  ecclesiastics,  in  national  and  theological 
matters,  are  revealed  in  subsequent  pages. 

Curiously  enough,  the  issue  of  the  "  Ne  Temere  " 
decree  attracted  scarcely  any  attention  in  the  country. 
Home  interests  were  enlivening  and  engrossing,  and 
— looking  back  to  the  first  stage — I  can  only  recall 
the  incidental  comment  that  the  new  Papal  document 
was  evidently  intended  specially  for  the  French,  who, 
it  was  assumed,  were  entirely  competent  to  fight  their 
own  battle.  Irish  afi"airs  in  all  those  years  took  our 
supreme  energies,  though  out-gazing,  interested  con- 
tributors, like  Mr.  Fred  Ryan,  defended  Ferrer  or 
emphasised  the  lesson  of  "  Le  Sillon,"  while  now 
and  then  Mr.  Robert  Lynd  sent  us  home  a  brilliant, 
suggestive  study,  but  we  usually  left  distant  interests 
alone,  unless,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Joan  of  Arc  cele- 
brations, they  could  be  made  to  point  an  Irish  moral. 
When  the  new  pronouncement  came  to  be  looked 
into  more  particularly  it  was  variously  regarded. 
Many  remained  indifi'erent ;  mixed  marriages  were 
outside  their  experience,  and  the  question  did  not 
interest  them ;  they  would  speak  more  strongly  on 
the  official  order  in  Irish  dioceses  that  a  Catholic 
who  entered  a  Protestant  Church  for  any  purpose. 


38       THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

even  to  act  as  "  best  man  "  at  the  wedding  of  a  Pro- 
testant friend,  committed  a  "sin"  so  great  that  its 
pardon  was  "  reserved  "  for  the  bishop,  not  a  local 
priest.  Others  thought  that  Catholics,  Protestants, 
and  Presbyterians  would  naturally  like  to  be  married 
by  their  own  clergy,  and  that  the  "  mixed  "  marriage 
really  raised  peculiar  difficulties.  More  said  that 
Popes  and  ecclesiastics  must,  of  course,  have  some 
regulative  power,  and  that  non-Catholics  who  drew 
fearsome  pictures  of  their  autocracy  and  hj^notism 
forgot  their  own  attitude  in  regard  to  the  reigning 
monarch  or  even  a  judge.  Some  who  were  parti- 
cularly interested  in  theology  saw  at  once  that  the 
Papal  pronouncement  illustrated  a  peculiar  new  de- 
parture, and  voiced  their  feelings  accordingly.  New- 
man had  said,  in  the  postscript  to  the  "  Letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk  "  :— 

'*  Mr.  Gladstone  seems  to  consider  that  there  are 
only  two  ways  of  marrying,  according  to  Catholic 
teaching  ;  he  omits  a  third,  in  which  we  consider  the 
essence  of  the  sacrament  to  lie.  He  speaks  of  civil 
marriage,  and  of  marriage  '  under  the  sanctions  of 
religion,'  by  which  phrase  he  seems  to  mean  marriage 
with  a  rite  and  a  minister.  But  it  is  also  a  religious 
marriage,  if  the  parties,  without  a  priest,  by  a  mutual 
act  of  consent,  as  in  the  presence  of  God,  marry  them- 
selves ;  and  such  a  vow  of  each  to  other  is,  accord- 
ing to  our  theology,  really  the  constituting  act,  the 
matter  and  form,  the  sacrament  of  marriage.  That 
is,  he  omits  the  very  contract  which  we  specially  call 
marriage.   ,  .   ." 

A  further  point  of  Newman's  is  that  "  English 
non-Roman    marriages "    are    held   valid   at    Rome 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  39 

"  because  parties  who  have  akeady  received  the 
Christian  rite  of  baptism  proceed  to  give  themselves 
to  each  other  in  the  sight  of  God  sacramentally, 
though  they  may  not  call  it  a  sacrament."  Gladstone 
had  said  that  Church  of  England  marriages  were,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Pope,  "  purely  civil  marriages."  Just 
the  reverse,  insisted  Newman,  they  were  considered 
"  sacramental  marriages." 

Newman  was  made  a  Cardinal  after  the  publication 
of  the  reply  to  Gladstone.  The  apparent  contradic- 
tion between  his  theology — that  of  the  Rome  of  his 
day — and  the  law  as  laid  down  in  the  "  Ne  Temere  " 
decree  gave  new  force  to  complaints  and  criticism  by 
the  modernists.  Yet  all  the  time  the  question  that 
most  deeply  concerned,  and  concerns,  a  certain 
Irish  Catholic  element  is  not  that  of  the  denomina- 
tion of  the  clergyman  who  performs  the  marriage  cere- 
mony, but  the  far  deeper  matter  of  the  mental  and 
spiritual  attitude  of  the  contracting  parties,  This  has 
long  been  with  us,  especially  in  connection  with  a 
peculiar  Irish  situation.  Though  not  Catholic  theo- 
logy in  theory,  it  is  more  than  suggested  in  practice 
that  rite  and  minister  really  make  the  marriage,  and 
sanctify  certain  unions  which  many  regard  as  odious 
— those  that  are  the  result  of  the  sheer  commercial 
system  of  "  match-making,"  described  in  other  pages, 
and  in  later  years  criticised  severely.  It  is  another 
instance  of  the  rising  spiritual  view  in  opposition  to 
the  formalistic  view,  the  assumption  that  the  clergy- 
man is  all-important  rather  than  incidental.  Some 
who  wonder  why  Irish  Catholics  are  not  much  moved 
by  matters  like  the  "Ne  Temere"  decree  overlook 
the  fact  that  a  great  many  of  them  are  pre-occupied 


40       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

with  problems  like  the  above  and  others  arising 
directly  out  of  their  own  peculiar  conditions  and 
transitional  circumstances. 

One  question  which  has  caused  immeasurably  more 
feeling  and  discussion  than  any  Papal  pronouncement 
made  directly  or  indirectly  to  Ireland  is  that  of  the 
clerical  control  of  our  primary  education,  not  only 
religious  but  secular.  It  was  exhaustively  discussed, 
as  already  noted,  in  the  Irish  Peasant.  The  laity 
in  scores  of  places  had  become  keenly  interested  in 
matters  of  education.  Apart  from  school  concerns, 
the  work  done  in  Gaelic  League  branches,  Coisdi 
Ceanntair,  Feis  Committees,  Irish  Training  Colleges, 
Industrial  Development  Associations,  and  other 
bodies,  showed  a  very  practical  zeal  for  what  was 
in  the  broad  sense  education.  Yet  the  conservative 
clergy  stood  sternly  for  undivided  managerial  control, 
and  what  was  described  as  in  practice  the  keeping  of 
a  rope  round  the  neck  of  the  teachers.  They  insisted 
that  the  interests  of  faith  and  morality  demanded 
this  dominance,  and  that  opposition  was  inspired 
by  "■  secularism  "  and  hostility  to  religion.  Broad- 
minded  men  like  the  Kev.  Dr.  McDonald,  senior 
Professor  of  Theology  in  Maynooth,  admitted  the 
untenable  and  preposterous  nature  of  this  claim.  At 
last  it  came  to  be  more  widely  understood  that  the 
clerics  were  not  managers  in  their  priestly  capacity, 
as  many  had  innocently  imagined,  but  were  there  by 
virtue  of  English  legislation.  England  in  theory 
objects  to  Pome  rule  and  the  "  priest  in  the  schools," 
but  rules  indirectly  through  Rome  and  sets  the  priest 
in  complete  managerial  control  of  the  vast  majority 
of  primary  schools  in  Ireland.     And  a  truly  piquant 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  41 

irony  is  that  if  a  bill  to  institute  even  partial  popular 
control  were  introduced  at  Westminster,  the  clerical 
managers  would  certainly  endeavour  to  rouse  an 
agitation  against  it,  and — judging  by  numerous  re- 
marks of  theirs — would  passionately  declare  to  their 
flocks :  "  The  wicked  English  Government  [whose 
representatives  we  are]  wants  to  drive  the  priests  and 
religion  [which  we  personally  seldom  or  never  teach 
the  pupils]  out  of  the  schools  of  Ireland,  and  sub- 
stitute secularists  and  infidels  [people  whose  religious 
training  has  been,  or  might  have  been,  imparted  by 
us].  Rally  to  your  faithful  priests  who  have  been 
always  the  champions  of  Faith  and  Fatherland." 

Whether  the  Britons  or  the  clergy  have  the  more 
reason  to  laugh  to  themselves  I  cannot  determine. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  most  brilliant  thing  ever 
done  by  the  Irish  priests  was  the  invention  of  the 
legend  that  they  had  been  always  on  the  side  of  the 
people.  And  I  sometimes  think  the  most  brilliant 
and  mordant  touch  of  English  irony  is  not  in  English 
literature  but  in  English  government  and  life — get- 
ting Rome  to  try  to  "  keep  us  good  "  on  the  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other,  putting  the  priest  in  pride  of  place 
over  our  schools  and  the  teachers  of  our  youth,  and 
then  inveighing  against  Rome  rule,  and  calling  us  a 
priest-ridden  people. 

In  Ireland  itself  an  incidental  little  irony  is  that 
some  of  the  Protestants  who  co-operate  heartily  in 
the  new  movements  grow  alarmed  on  occasion  over 
Catholic  lay  criticism  of  bishops  and  priests,  deeming 
it  dangerously  strong  or  indiscreet.  They  endeavour 
from  time  to  time  to  put  on  the  brake,  so  to  say,  and 
ensure  gentler  going  and  mellowness  of  temper.     It 


42       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

has  been  very  amusing  to  see  perturbed  Protestants 
coming  thus  to  the  rescue  of  much-criticised  Catholic 
ecclesiastics  and  their  friends.  Once  in  the  high 
fever  of  the  University  agitation,  described  later  on, 
Dublin  students  were  so  indignant  over  the  attitude 
of  bishops  and  others  that  they  started  a  weekly  paper, 
the  Irish  Student,  the  language  of  which  was  a  fear- 
ful joy.  Dr.  Hyde,  for  all  his  diplomacy,  was  sorely 
taxed  to  bring  about  not  peace  but  a  more  restrained 
and  less  unofficial  way  of  carrying  on  hostilities.  I  was 
touched  by  other  efforts  of  peace-making  Protestants. 
Protestants  have  made  distinctive  places  for  them- 
selves in  several  lines  and  spheres.  The  great  case 
of  Dr.  Hyde,  the  significant  instances  of  Captain 
Otway  Cuffe,  and  others,  we  shall  see.  Protes- 
tants sometimes  did  just  the  very  work  the  outside 
reader  would  never  expect.  A  young  Protestant, 
Mr.  Ernest  Lane  Joynt,  one  of  our  most  in- 
teresting Irish  writers,  first  made  mark  before  he 
reached  the  age  of  twenty  by  an  Irish  study  of  Dr. 
Geoffrey  Keating,  the  Irish  historian  and  Catholic 
apologist  of  Shakespeare's  time.  A  country  Protes- 
tant clergyman  contributed  original  poetry  in  Irish 
to  the  Irish  Nation.  Another  Protestant,  Conan 
O'Connell  ("  Conall  Cearnach"),  Celtic  Lecturer  in 
the  new  Belfast  University,  is  one  of  our  best  Irish 
writers.  The  Pev.  J.  O.  Hannay,  rector  of  West- 
port,  and  widely  known  at  home  and  abroad  as 
"  George  A.  Birmingham,"  has  played  a  special  part 
in  our  movements.  A  Belfast  man,  educated  at 
Haileybury  College,  Hertford,  and  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  it  was  Dr.  Hyde's  St07^y  of  Early  Gaelic 
Literature  which  first  revealed  to  him  the  fact  that 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  43 

there  was  an  Irish  literature,  and  prompted  him  to 
take  up  the  work  of  learning  modern  Irish.  When 
he  came  into  contact  with  the  working  Gaelic 
League  in  the  west  he  was  immensely  attracted  by 
the  honesty  of  purpose,  independence  of  thought, 
enthusiasm,  and  hatred  of  pretence,  which  he  found 
amongst  the  workers.  His  work  for  the  Gaelic 
League  and  the  industrial  movement  has  been  very 
sincere  and  many-sided.  He  believes  that  the  great 
hope  for  Ireland  is  the  revival  among  the  people  of  a 
spirit  of  honesty  and  independence  of  thought,  and 
a  vigorous  campaign  against  every  kind  of  sham — 
especially  the  sham  patriotism  of  the  "  spouter"  and 
the  publican — against  every  kind  of  lie  whoever  tells 
it.  It  is  against  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  shams 
that  he  directed  the  satire  of  his  first  two  novels, 
The  Seething  Pot  and  Hyacinth.  He  now  knows 
that  they  contain  many  mistakes  and  some  grave 
injustices,  but  he  was  altogether  sincere  in  writing 
them,  and  wished  for  nothing  except  the  good  of  his 
country.  Some  of  his  criticism  under  the  guise  of 
fiction  brought  quaint  storm_s  around  his  head.  Older 
Catholic  clerics  and  a  Board  of  Guardians  were 
wroth  with  him ;  young  priests  and  Catholic  press- 
men defended  him.  They  did  not  agree  with  all  the 
criticism,  but  they  knew  that  Irish  life  was  a  rather 
complex  and  comprehensive  thing,  which  very  few 
knew  as  a  whole,  and  the  more  delineation  of  it, 
the  more  criticism  of  it  we  had,  the  better.  Agree- 
ment or  disagreement  with  the  criticism  did  not 
affect  the  literary  issue  at  all ;  imagination — using 
the  term  in  the  true  sense — was  its  own  justification, 
and  was  under  no  obligation  to  consider  even  a  Board 


44       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

of  Guardians.  Besides  his  novels  Mr.  Hannay  has 
published  The  Spirit  and  Origin  of  Christian 
Monasticism  and  The  Wisdom  of  the  Desert,  a  trans- 
lation of  some  of  the  reliques  of  the  Egyptian  hermits 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  and  an  endeavour  to 
illustrate  and  appreciate  their  religious  spirit. 

Irish  Protestantism  sometimes  grew  critical  of 
itself.  At  one  stage  a  prominent  Irish  writer,  "  Conan 
Maol,"  brought  up  an  illuminating  and  candid  dis- 
cussion by  an  appeal  to  the  Protestant  bishops, 
through  the  Irish  Nation,  to  take  a  prominent  part 
in  Irish  social  and  intellectual  work.  Certain  Pro- 
testant ecclesiastics,  as  I  learned  privately,  were  much 
pleased  and  moved  by  the  terms  of  the  appeal.  In 
the  public  discussion  one  of  the  most  interesting 
contributions  was  that  of  a  well  -  known  Ulster 
Protestant  worker.  Miss  M.  C.  Dobbs  : — 

"I  agree  with  'Conan  Maol,'  that  'virility'  does 
not  depend  on  the  particular  form  of  religion  to 
which  one  may  belong  The  Christian  religion — 
Catholic,  Greek,  Anglican,  Presbyterian  —  was 
never  intended  to  develop  business  qualities.  The 
Bible  is  mostly  taken  up  with  denunciations  of  the 
rich  and  their  methods  of  money-making.  '  Ulster ' 
[another  contributor]  makes  a  grievous  mistake  if  he 
thinks  that  commercial  prosperity  is  any  sign  of  a 
superior  religion  or  of  God's  favour.  ...  I  don't 
like  to  have  my  Church  held  up  for  admiration  as  if 
it  were  a  kind  of  commercial  school  or  technical 
institute  for  turning  out  successful  business  men. 
It  is  nothing  of  the  sort.  Our  spiritual  life  is  far 
more  real  and  deep  than  talk  of  this  kind  leads 
people  to  believe.     There  is  an   evangelical  mysti- 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  45 

cism  in  Protestantism  which  brings  us  very  close 
to  Christ,  and  perhaps  insists  almost  too  much  on 
separation  from  worldly  things.  It  wants  to  go  into 
the  desert  and  live  on  locusts  and  wild  honey. 

"  What  I  think  we  Protestants  want  is  a  little 
real  persecution.  There's  nothing  like  it  for  sharpen- 
ing spiritual  insight  and  wakening  up  the  indifferent. 
When  a  Church  (like  the  Church  in  Spain)  has 
things  its  own  way  it  waxes  fat  and  kicks  and  gets 
lazy.  .  .  .  Disestablishment  did  us  a  lot  of  good, 
but  we  have  been  so  mightily  pleased  with  ourselves 
for  surviving,  that  we  are  in  danger  of  getting  self- 
satisfied  again.  It  seems  to  me,  on  looking  back 
on  Irish  history,  that  all  the  dreadful  wars  from 
Elizabeth's  time,  the  Penal  Code,  the  persecutions 
and  tyrannies,  were  perhaps  designed  to  prevent  the 
Irish  Catholics  from  falling  into  the  pit  of  materialism 
or  atheism,  that  they  might  keep  alive  the  spiritual 
flame  which  the  Continental  Catholic  nations  seem 
in  danger  of  losing,  and  that  when  the  Gaelic  revival 
was  born  they  might  have  the  insight  to  receive  it 
as  the  gift  of  God  to  compensate  them  for  what  they 
have  gone  through. 

"  That  the  Gaelic  League  is  one  of  the  outer  signs 
of  an  inward  rebirth  of  Ireland  I  have  not  the 
slightest  doubt.  That  there  is  no  limit  to  what 
Ireland  may  do  in  the  future  under  the  impulse  of 
this  inspiration  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  either. 
We  stand  at  present  between  the  old  civilisations  of 
Europe  and  the  new  empire  of  America,  as  Greece  of 
old  stood  between  the  old  world  of  Asia  Minor, 
Crete,  Egypt,  and  the  rising  power  of  Rome.  To 
every  nation  comes  its  supreme  flowering  time,  and 


46       THE   POPE  S    GREEN   ISLAND 

it  may  well  be  that  Ireland  has  as  great  a  mission 
as  Greece,  and  that  we  are  fortunate  enough  to 
stand  at  its  inception.  But  it  is  my  sincere  hope 
that  whatever  work  lies  before  us  we  Protestants 
will  be  found  to  have  played  no  mean  part  therein." 

Of  Presbyterian  workers  and  sympathisers  I  had 
less  direct  experience,  apart  from  a  few  striking 
types.  The  spirit  of  some  who  are  new  to  Irish 
movements,  but  very  ardent  and  fraternal,  may  be 
gathered  from  this  message,  received  in  the  summer 
of  1911  :— 

"...  We  had  both,  along  with  the  other  members 

of  the  ,  been  reading  your  book.  The  Plough 

and  the  Cross,  and  we  felt  that  the  same  ideals  as  we 

held  in  our ,  which  is  a  branch  of  the ,  were 

undoubtedly  held  and  expressed  by  yourself  and  the 
[progressive]  clerical  and  lay  element  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  whose  cause  you  plead  in  your 
story.  .  .  .  We  only  got  the  length,  after  much 
thought,  of  formulating  our  aim  at  our  meeting  last 
month.  .  .  .  You  can  see  that  the  thought  behind 
the  aim,  so  expressed,  looks  forward  to  the  working 
together  of  both  parties  for  the  bringing  of  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  Ireland,  and  for  the  developing  in  the 
highest  sense  of  Irish  nationality  for  Christ's  sake 
and  the  world's.  ...  It  seems  to  me  that  in  my  own 
Church  (Irish  Presbyterian)  exactly  similar  things  [to 
those  described  in  the  novel]  are  taking  place,  and 
although  it  is  not  defined  even  to  the  men  who  are 
taking  part  in  the  forward  movements,  there  is  at 
the  back  of  it  all  the  same  inspiration  of  the  national 
ideal." 

There  is,  however,  one  great  Irish  Protestant  who 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS   47 

has  suffered  sorely  at  the  hands  of  Ireland.  This  is 
Mr.  George  Moore.  We  know  that  he  is  an  Irish 
Protestant,  because  he  has  told  us  so.  Some  years 
ago,  when  Irish  Catholic  bishops  had  taken  some 
particularly  un-national  action,  Mr.  Moore  wrote 
with  sad  solemnity  to  the  Dublin  papers  to  declare 
that  he  could  no  longer  remain  in  the  same  Church 
as  their  lordships :  their  conduct  had  diiven  him 
to  Protestantism.  Dublin  for  a  long  time  did  not 
recover  from  the  shock,  not  of  Mr.  Moore's  passing 
over  to  Protestantism,  but  of  discovering  that  until 
the  time  of  the  crisis  he  had  carried  in  his  soul  so 
much  sensitive  Catholicism.  He  broke  with  more 
than  the  Church  of  his  fathers.  He  gave  up  his 
London  flat,  renounced  the  Anglo-Saxon  people  in 
various  uncomplimentary  interviews,  and  descending 
on  Dublin  bade  Ireland  be  of  good  cheer ;  he  would 
help  her  to  save  her  language  and  her  soul.  She 
had  been  trying  in  a  well-meaning  way  to  do  both, 
but,  of  course,  even  she,  who  did  not  always  know 
a  good  thing  when  she  saw  it,  would  clearly  under- 
stand that  such  distinguished  patronage  made  a 
great  difference.  The  prodigal  son  laid  his  "Un- 
tilled  Field"  at  her  feet.  It  was  taken  up  by  a 
genial  Catholic  Gael,  Tadhg  O'Donoghue  ("  Torna"), 
and  a  young  Protestant  student  of  T.C.D.,  Mr. 
O'Sullivan,  and  between  them  they  turned  it  into 
Irish.  Irish  readers  raised  their  eyebrows  mildly, 
read  the  result  with  some  interest,  and  went  on 
with  the  work  of  life  as  if  nothing  wonderful  had 
happened.  Then  the  Playboy  of  the  Eastern  World 
took  his  next  great  step  for  the  revival  of  Irish.  He 
decided  that  it  should  be  learned — by  his  nephew. 


48       THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

This  event  in  modern  Irish  history  is  treated  of  by 
Miss  Susan  Mitchell  in  her  lively  little  book,  Aids  to 
the  Immortality  of  Certain  Persons  in  Ireland : — 

"  I  have  puffed  the  Irish  language,  I  have  puffed  the  Irish 

soap ; 
I  have  tried  them — on  my  nephew,  with  the  best  results, 

I  hope. 
But   with   this   older,  dirtier   George  I  have   no  heart   to 

cope." 

The  momentous  change  of  creed  is  also  celebrated, 
and  we  hear  the  convert  sing  in  his  ardour : — 

"  Come,  little  Papist  maids,  and  sit  on  my  converted  knee, 
Bid  me  to  live,  and  I  will  live,  your  Protestant  to  be." 

But  things  grew  sadder  and  sadder.  The  simple- 
minded  Irish  people,  who  had  not  been  educated  up 
to  modern  ways,  went  on  putting  their  trust  in  folk 
who  had  spoken  Irish  from  childhood,  and  who  now 
wrote  books  in  Irish,  as  well  as  in  people  who  taught 
Irish,  and  other  people  who  learned  Irish  unobtru- 
sively, rather  than  in  a  distinguished  artist  of  the 
great  world  who  saved  the  language  vicariously 
through  his  nephew.  They  were  plainly  a  plodding, 
absurdly  practical  folk,  who  must  have  lost  about  a 
thousand  years  ago  the  last  trace  of  that  "  Celtic 
glamour  "  for  which  Europe  still  gave  them  credit. 
Mr.  Moore,  in  those  sombre  moments  that  come  to  all 
artists,  almost  felt  that  he  must  go  back  to  exile. 
However,  he  had  the  Abbey  Theatre,  with  Synge  and 
Yeats  and  Lady  Gregory  to  challenge,  tantalise,  or 
amuse  him  ;  he  was  within  reach  of  the  cosmic  cheeri- 
ness  of  "A.  E., "and  the  stimulating  intellectual  pessim- 
ism of  John  Eglinton  ;  he  could  talk  about  cathedrals 
to  Mr.  Edward  Martyn  when  they  were  friends ;  so 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  49 

Ireland,  with  an  effort,  he  found  endurable.  In 
inspired  moments  he  still  had  brave  schemes  for  the 
language  he  had  returned  to  save.  Now  it  was  to  let 
loose  the  Arabian  Nights  in  it,  anon  he  felt  that 
Maupassant  would  make  it  artistic  and  appetising. 
Neither  of  these  pet  schemes  was  hailed  with  joy. 
We  all  knew  that  original  work  fared  better  than 
translations.  In  point  of  fact  part  of  the  Thousand 
and  One  Mights  was  translated  afterwards  by  Mr. 
Dermot  Foley,  an  excellent  Irish  writer,  but  it  made 
no  special  appeal ;  carrying  wonder  tales  to  Gaelic 
Ireland  was  like  carrying  water  to  the  sea.  Several 
other  Irish  writers  tried  their  powers  on  translations  ; 
"Torna"  rendered  songs  from  Heine,  also  songs  out 
of  Welsh  ;  Piaras  Beaslai  translated  the  famous  tale 
of  Peter  Schlemihil  from  the  German ;  Father  Brennan 
songs  of  Beranger ;  and,  amongst  others,  a  curious 
version  of  the  Ruhdiydt  of  Omar  Khayyam  came  to 
us  all  the  way  from  America.  Some  of  the  transla- 
tions were  distinctly  good,  but,  as  a  rule,  the  authors' 
original  work  was  the  more  acceptable.  Mr.  Moore's 
faith  in  the  transforming  and  uplifting  power  of  one 
translated  classic  or  masterpiece  was  the  most  touch- 
ing and  romantic  thing  in  his  career. 

In  May  1910  he  performed  his  supreme  feat  for 
the  Gael.  He  ate  the  historic  lunch  that  saved  the 
Irish  language.  Or  rather  he  and  Count  Lutzow  ate 
it  together,  for  the  distinguished  diplomatist  and 
litterateur  lunched  with  him  in  Dublin,  and  told  him, 
as  they  partook  of  the  good  things,  the  story  of  the 
Czechic,  or  Bohemian,  language  revival.  After  lunch 
Mr.  Moore  rose  up  with  a  full  heart  to  impart  to  the 
Irish  race  the  electrifying  information  that  once  upon 

D 


50       THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

a  time  a  national  language  had  been  revived — in 
Bohemia,  "  We  have  found,"  he  said,  in  his  historic 
communication  to  the  daily  papers,  "  a  parallel  which 
proves  that  the  Irish  language  can  be  revived  if  the 
people  really  wish  it,  because  the  analogy  is  as  com- 
plete as  could  be  wished  for."  (Apparently  were  the 
analogy  not  complete  our  case  would  be  hopeless.)  To 
give  the  reader  an  idea  of  the  novelty  and  the  per- 
tinence of  this  precious  information,  it  need  only  be 
mentioned  that,  many  years  earlier,  people  had  got 
tired  of  hearing  the  story  of  the  Bohemian  and  other 
European  language  revivals,  while  in  the  Irish  move- 
ment there  had  been  achievements  and  developments 
that  the  pioneers  at  the  start  would  have  regarded  as 
a  fairy  tale.  Mr.  Moore  obtained  full  credit  for  his 
tidings  of  great  joy ;  "  the  lunch  that  saved  a 
language  "  had  ample  justice  accorded  it.  We  said 
that  thousands  of  years  hence  Irish  sages  and  philo- 
sophers would  probably  fill  libraries  with  subtle 
volumes  on  the  question  whether  Mr.  Moore's 
language-saving  lunch  was  literal  or  symbolistic. 
The  war  of  Realist  and  Idealist  would  rage  around 
it.  The  general  Irish  mind  in  the  untravelled  future 
would  doubtless  decline  to  take  it  literally.  Mr. 
Moore  would  have  grown  vast  and  vague  as 
"Hermes"  or  "Orpheus,"  and  might  be  taken  to 
mean  a  man,  or  many  men  and  teachers,  or  a  race,  or 
a  civilisation,  or  a  system  of  philosophy.  A  con- 
venient and  popular  theory  would  be  that  "  Moore  " 
— who  Lunched — meant  a  whole  series  of  seekers 
and  writers  who  in  the  twentieth  century  imbibed 
and  filled  themselves  to  overflowing  with  the  tradi- 
tional lore  and  wisdom  of  the  Gael,  and  reproduced 


POPE,  PRIESTS,  AND  PROTESTANTS  51 

it  in  brilliant  new  books  that  proved  the  intellectual 
and  spiritual  bread  of  life  to  their  race  and  genera- 
tion. Taking  the  historic  "  Moore  Lunch  "  as  a  mere 
material  repast  in  the  Dublin  of  one  hour  of  time 
would  be  ridiculed,  by  idealists  at  any  rate,  as  a 
degradation  of  a  sublime  fact,  a  subtle  series  of 
acquisitions  and  creations. 

If  Mr.  Moore  eventually  gave  up  reviving  the  very 
lively  Irish  language  and  cut  himself  adrift,  or  was 
sent  adrift,  from  his  bewildering  race,  Ireland  bears 
him  no  ill-will.  Quite  the  contrary.  Miss  Mitchell 
has  sung  of  him  before  his  first  repentant  home- 
returning  days : — 

"  O  Eire  !  ^  he  was  false  to  you,  your  big  and  artless  child, 
His  pink-and-white  simplicity  by  Sasanach  defiled  !  " 

But  no !  Ireland  insists  that  there  was  no  defile- 
ment, that  it  is  only  in  his  artistic  capacity  he  shocks 
the  proprieties,  that  as  private  gentleman  and  citizen 
he  is  almost  intolerable  in' his  virtue,  almost  tedious 
in  his  decorum.  Certain  confessions  about  himself 
are  attributed  to  the  acquisition,  in  his  Paris  years, 
of  the  Frenchman's  habit  of  making  himself  out  to 
be  a  great  deal  worse  than  he  really  is.  As  a  witty 
Dublin  lady  said,  "Some  men  kiss  and  tell;  Mr. 
Moore  tells  but  does  not  kiss."  So  he  is  really  a  servant 
of  Ireland  sent  away  with  a  good  "  character." 

^  Eire  (Air'-ii)  nominative  and  vocative  cases ;  Eirinn,  dative ;  Eireann, 
genitive. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  GAELIC  LEAGUE 

CoNNRADH  na  Gaedhilge,  or  the  Gaelic  League, 
started  humbly  and  modestly  in  the  early  nineties 
of  the  last  century,  is  in  some  respects  the  most 
surprising,  but  from  other  points  of  view  the  most 
natural,  development  in  modern  Ireland.  To  many 
thousands  of  Irishmen  and  Irishwomen,  whose  lives 
might  otherwise  have  been  wasted,  it  has  brought 
the  knowledge  of  a  varied  native  culture  and  given 
the  sense  that  they  have  a  country  in  which  they 
can  lead  fruitful  and  spacious  lives.  In  an  ever- 
deepening  degree  it  has  re-discovered  Ireland  for 
them,  or,  to  express  it  in  another  way,  it  has  enabled 
them  to  discover  something  hitherto  undreamt  of 
in  themselves.  It  arose  in  a  time  of  demoralisation, 
recrimination,  and  confusion  consequent  on  the  tragic 
fall  and  passing  of  Parnell.  To  the  practical  and 
superficial  observer  in  Dublin  and  the  eastern  and 
central  places,  and  in  many  even  of  the  west  and 
south,  its  dream  of  the  extension  here,  and  the 
revival  there,  of  the  Irish  language,  and  its  general 
cultivation,  oral  and  literary,  was  as  vain  as  the 
revival  of  Druidism.  Even  hundreds  in  the  south, 
the  west,  and  the  north,  who  knew  the  language 
well,  were  not  optimistic  about  it  or  about  anything 
else  in  existence.  And  while,  even  in  the  darkest 
years  of  the    later   nineteenth   century,    there   had 

52 


COMING  OF  THE  GAELIC  LEAGUE    53 

always  been  some  faithful  writers  of  Irish,  and 
collectors  of  the  copious  Gaelic  lore  still  surviving 
amongst  the  remote  people,  it  had  not  been  heard 
in  most  of  the  pulpits  or  schools,  and  had  not  been 
used  by  most  professional  and  public  men  in  the 
generality  of  Irish  counties  for  a  couple  of  generations. 
Still  there  were  Irish  scholars,  Irish  text-books, 
volumes  of  Irish  tales  and  sermons,  stores  of 
Irish  manuscripts,  Irish  language  societies  that 
worked  on  academic  lines  with  little  thought  or 
relation  to  life,  while  there  were  known  to  be  over 
three-quarters  of  a  million  Irish  speakers  in  Ireland 
alone,  with  thousands  of  others  who  had  a  share  of 
Irish,  and  tens  of  thousands  who  spoke  an  English 
somewhat  like  literally  translated  Irish.  The  number 
of  Irish  speakers  in  America,  Britain,  &c.,  was  still 
very  large.  Altogether  beyond  the  Shannon  and 
the  Galtees  and  away  in  the  north-west  there  was 
plenty  of  living  Irish ;  the  speakers  who  habitually 
used  it  had  a  very  extensive  vocabulary,  and  with 
them  the  tongue  had  preserved  a  marked  precision 
and  purity,  explained  in  part  by  their  conservative 
habits  and  the  long  practice  of  memorising  tradi- 
tional hero-tales,  folk-stories,  and  poetry.  So  in  its 
own  sphere,  though  that  sphere  was  receding,  the 
language  was  still  very  much  alive,  and  in  places 
where  it  was  little  more  than  a  memory  there  was 
a  certain  feeling  for  it,  in  the  consciousness  or  the 
subconsciousness  of  the  people.  This,  as  some  will 
readily  understand,  proved  a  far-reaching  factor.  At 
the  same  time  the  main  trend  of  later  Irish  thought, 
so  far  as  it  was  thought,  had  been  away  from  the 
Gael  and  the  Gaelic  ideals  till  the  majority  of  Irish- 


54       THE    POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

men  had  lost  all  conscious  sense  of  national  con- 
tinuity or  tradition.  While  avowedly  in  political 
clash  with  England,  or  at  any  rate  the  governing 
powers  and  representatives  of  England,  three-fourths 
of  Ireland,  in  externals  and  more,  had  been  growing 
anglicised  ;  the  people  had  ceased  to  cultivate  their 
own  minds  and  powers,  and  what  they  imported  and 
assimilated  was  never  England's  best  and  often  her 
worst.  In  the  political,  social,  and  mental  circum- 
stances of  the  time,  an  appeal  to  them  to  reverse 
their  attitude,  revive  or  extend  Irish  speech,  and 
develop  a  distinctive  native  self  and  consciousness, 
might  well  seem  visionary.  It  was  like  reminding 
the  average  man  that  his  soul  is  his  most  important 
concern,  and  that  from  morn  to  eve,  in  shop  or  office 
or  factory,  he  must  make  it  his  guiding  and  domi- 
nating interest.  He  might  agree  in  theory  but  his 
practice,  it  is  to  be  feared,  would  be  unsatisfactory. 

The  unexpected  happened.  After  a  period  of  toil 
and  teaching  in  obscurity,  the  Gaelic  League  pioneers 
began  to  succeed  to  an  extent  far  beyond  their  initial 
hopes.  Doubtless  those  who  have  studied  the  ex- 
pressive stories  of  the  language  revivals  in  Bohemia, 
Hungary,  Denmark,  Belgium,  Finland,  the  Balkan 
States,  and  elsewhere,  will  not  be  surprised.  Those 
who  seriously  estimate  what  an  expressive  and  long 
sedulously  cultivated  native  language  must  mean, 
psychologically  and  otherwise,  to  a  people,  will  think 
the  success  within  the  fitness  of  things,  based  on  in- 
evitable though  not  entirely  obvious  laws.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  by  the  end  of  the  century  Connradh  na 
Gaedhilge  had  become  a  power  in  Ireland,  ob- 
jectively and  subjectively.  Apart  from  its  constructive 
work   it   had   sown  a  plentiful  crop   of  productive 


COMING  OF  THE  GAELIC  LEAGUE    55 

criticism.  It  began  and  encouraged  a  general 
national  examination  of  conscience  ;  every  institution 
in  the  land  was  shown  how  it  had  sinned  against 
itself  and  the  soul  and  vitality  of  the  nation  by  its 
neglect  of  the  national  language.  Political  leaders, 
on  the  whole,  heard  the  plainest  truths,  mainly  on 
the  subject  of  the  distinction  between  politics  and 
nationality  and  on  the  flowery  phrase-making  they 
had  substituted  for  serious  thinking. 

The  political  leaders,  in  the  main,  with  hundreds 
of  their  followers,  were  either  indifferent  or  hostile  to 
the  language  movement  for  years.  (Some  of  these 
leaders  are  not  exactly  ardent  supporters  even  yet.) 
Their  attitude  was  similar  to  that  of  numerous  Ger- 
mans, Danes,  or  Finns  in  the  earlier  years  of  the 
German,  Danish,  or  Finnish  revivals.  Many  Irish- 
men by  this  time  did  not  know  Irish  history  in  the 
broad  sense ;  they  only  knew  more  or  less  of  the 
outer  struggle  between  England  and  Ireland,  which 
is  a  very  different  matter.  Of  Irish  psychology  and 
civilisation  in  the  great  sense  they  had  no  more 
notion  than  of  Greek  or  Egyptian.  To  them  every- 
thing Gaelic  was  something  "primitive"  or  an 
inappreciable  "  remnant."  They  thought  that  "  Irish 
literature  "  began  with  Tom  Moore.  And  even  as 
their  conception  of  the  past  was  limited  and  petty, 
so  their  vision  of  their  own  immediate  selves  and 
possibilities  was  also  limited  and  modest.  Patriotism 
with  them  was  not  an  enthusiasm  or  a  faith,  but  an 
inherited  tendency  or  a  mood,  responsive  in  the 
main  only  to  surface  politics.  There  had  been  little 
to  awaken  their  national  consciousness.  Church 
and  School,  Professions  and  Press,  had  forgotten  the 
deeper  Ireland. 

C- 


56       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

Amongst  the  earliest  pioneers  of  the  Gaelic 
League  were  three  men  of  singularly  diverse  types 
and  predilections,  each  an  arresting  individuality 
destined  to  make  a  deep  impression  on  the  new  Irish 
generation.  One  was  a  young  Protestant  layman 
who  had  had  a  brilliant  career  at  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  the  second  was  a  young  priest  in  Maynooth, 
the  third  a  young  Catholic  layman  from  Ulster,  To 
understand  the  trio  and  their  place  and  significance 
is  to  see  well  inward  into  Ireland. 

As  a  boy  in  the  north  Connacht  home  of  his  father, 
a  Protestant  clergyman,  Douglas  Hyde  had  been 
lovingly  drawn  to  the  hearths  and  customs,  the 
stories  and  songs  of  his  Irish-speaking  neighbours. 
Eager  and  social-hearted,  he  went  from  home  to  home 
and  was  as  one  of  the  people  themselves.  Adopt- 
ing a  folk-lore  term,  the  old  men  called  him  "An 
Craoibhin  Aoibhinn,"  ^  or  the  Pleasant  Little  Branch, 
He  afterwards  adopted  the  title  as  his  literary  pen- 
name,  and  to  this  day,  in  conversation  or  writing,  he 
is  more  often  referred  to  as  "  An  Craoibhin  "  than  as 
Dr.  Hyde — as  men  refer  to  "The  Prime  Minister" 
or  "The  Chancellor."  After  his  Trinity  College 
career  he  turned  again  to  the  firesides  and  fields  of 
the  western  people,  and  lovingly  and  systematically 
collected  a  store  of  their  folk-stories  and  their  songs. 
As  far  back  as  1889  a  volume  of  the  stories,  in  the 
original  Irish,  had  appeared  in  Dublin,  It  was 
dedicated  to  the  Rev.  Euseby  D.  Cleaver,  a  Protestant 
clergyman,  who  had  been  an  enthusiast  for  Gaelic 
studies  for  a  generation.  Several  such  volumes  were 
to  follow,  many  of  the  stories,  in  French  and  German 
translations,  along  with  the  Irish  originals,  going  far 

*  Kreev'een  Eev'-en,  approximately. 


COMING  OF  THE  GAELIC  LEAGUE    57 

through  Europe.  In  the  matter  of  lyrics,  Dr.  Hyde 
was  also  an  extensive  collector ;  at  an  early  stage  he 
gave  us  the  memorable  Love-Songs  of  Connacht,  and 
in  succeeding  years,  part  by  part,  the  great  collection 
of  the  Religious  Songs  of  Connacht,  a  fine  example 
of  a  Protestant's  devoted  doing  of  the  work  which 
Catholics  neglected. 

The  young  and  modest  Gaelic  League  was  exceed- 
inglyhappyin  the  selection  of  Dr.Hyde  as  its  president, 
though  probably  neither  it  nor  he  had  more  than  a  dim 
inkling  of  the  fact.  Apart  from  his  wide  linguistic  and 
literary  culture  he  was  stored  with  not  only  the  heroic 
lore  but  the  humblest  popular  lore  of  the  Gael.  He 
spoke  Irish  and  wrote  Irish  prose  in  the  direct  and 
racy  folk-tale  manner,  while  his  original  Irish  songs 
were  even  more  simple  and  more  naive  than  the  tradi- 
tional songs  of  the  Connacht  people — something  very 
different  from  the  lays  of  the  older  bards  and  the  later 
strains  of  the  Munster  poets.  He  had  a  magnetic 
presence  and  appealing  platform  gifts.  Whether  he 
spoke  in  Irish  or  English  he  imparted  to  his  oratory 
a  freshness,  naturalness,  and  verve  in  winning  con- 
trast to  the  traits  of  a  generation  of  political  speeches 
and  several  generations  of  sermons.  His  earnestness, 
frankness,  and  humour  were  unfailing,  and  the  skill 
with  which  he  made  strong  points  without  any  wound- 
ing of  theological,  political,  or  personal  susceptibilities, 
showed  a  delicate  art.  Indeed  his  tactful  spirit  has 
always  been  one  of  the  assets  of  the  Gaelic  League. 
Gradually  he  came  to  be  regarded  as  an  embodiment 
of  the  essence,  romance,  and  flavour  of  the  Gaelic 
civilisation.  There  are  national  and  popular  individu- 
alities, generally  of  the  past,  whom  to  think  about 
makes  our  own  minds  creative  ;  one  of  these,  in  the 


58       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

living  present,  is  emphatically  Douglas  Hyde.  Much 
of  the  mind  of  the  new  generation  has  been  uncon- 
sciously called  out  of  stagnation  and  set  growing  by 
his  work  and  individuality.  Strenuous  and  toilsome 
labour  has  been  sweetened  and  made  mellow  by  his 
natural  raciness  and  his  humour.  No  savant  of  whom 
I  ever  heard  had  a  finer  homeliness.  He  often  brings 
the  sense  of  a  cheery  country  fireside  to  a  great  Gaelic 
festival,  as  on  the  occasion  in  Dublin  when  he  recited 
his  original  ode,  "  An  Preachan  Mor."  This  means 
the  great  crow  or  rook,  a  bird  which  is  a  notorious 
nuisance  in  Irish  potato-fields.  Dr.  Hyde's  Great 
Crow  was  anglicisation ;  and  the  havoc  it  wrought 
in  the  gardens  of  Padraig,  and  the  direct  method  of 
scaring  it  away,  were  set  forth  with  such  vivid  home- 
liness that  the  "  Preachd,n  Mor"  became  as  much  a 
household  word  as  the  devil  or  the  weather.  "  An 
Craoibhin's  "  folk-spirit  and  large  simple-heartedness 
are  shown  in  his  short  Irish  plays,  one  of  the  most 
popular  of  which  concerns  the  adventures  of  a  tinker 
and  a  fairy.  He  himself  on  occasion  has  played  the 
part  of  the  tinker,  surely  the  only  LL.D.  who  has 
thus  stooped  to  conquer.  I  once  met  him  in  Dublin, 
eager  in  the  quest  of  a  hat  ugly  enough  to  suit  him 
in  this  part.  The  incident  is  described  in  one  of  the 
Irish  novels  that  appeared  in  the  Irish  Nation,  and 
a  translation  will  convey  a  sense  of  the  Dublin  Gael's 
attitude  to  Dr.  Hyde.  The  scene  was  a  noted  meeting- 
place  of  poets,  story-tellers,  artists,  and  others  : — 

"  The  boys  became  more  hilarious  in  the  other 
room.  Gruagach  of  the  Gaiety  went  out.  After  a 
while  he  came  back,  and  Douglas  of  the  West  along 
with  him. 

" '  Every  sage,  every  druid,  every  poet,  every  man 


COMING  OF  THE  GAELIC  LEAGUE    59 

famed  throughout  Eire,  comes  one  day  to  the  Stad/ 
said  the  Gruagach.  *  Now  the  hero  of  the  West  is 
in  our  midst.  It  is  a  sad  case  that  he  did  not  send 
me  a  telegram,  so  that  there  might  be  a  feast  before 
him.' 

"  A  welcome  and  twenty  were  accorded  the  hero, 
and  high  glee  arose. 

"  '  Sorrow  is  on  me  that  I  cannot  bide  long,'  said 
Douglas.  '  I  am  on  the  quest  of  a  hat :  an  old  hat, 
and  an  old  hat  as  ugly  as  it  is  possible  for  an  old  hat 
to  be.  I  am  in  quest  of  it  since  the  going  down  of 
the  sun.  I  have  tested  a  hundred.  They  were  ugly 
and  tattered  beyond  question,  but  not  one  of  them 
would  meet  my  need.' 

"  'Did  you  search  Trinity  College?'  asked  Philip. 

"  '  Ah,  don't  be  jesting,  you  rascal,'  said  Douglas ; 
'  it  is  not  a  cause  of  laughter,  but  a  cause  of  woe.' 

"  '  One  would  think  that  old  hats  were  as  plentiful 
in  Dublin  as  old  poetiy,'  said  Kevin,  and  he  looked 
at  Taidhgin. 

"  '  And,  in  the  name  of  the  Stad,  what  have  you  to 
do  with  an  old  hat,  O  Friend  of  the  Gael  ? '  asked 
the  Gruagach. 

" '  We'll  be  playing  the  Tinker  and  the  Faiiy  in  a 
couple  of  days ' 

"  '  That  is  known  to  all  of  us,  but ' 

"  '  I  it  is  who  will  be  the  Tinker,'  said  Douglas. 
'  That  exactly  is  the  reason  I  am  wanting  an  ugly 
old  hat.  But  by  all  seeming  an  old  hat  bad  enough 
for  a  tinker  is  not  to  be  found  in  all  Dublin.  A 
stylish  place  it  is.' 

"  '  My  heart-burning  woe  !  My  biting  north  wind  ! ' 
said  Taidhgin.  '  A  poet  and  a  man  of  learning  and 
the  leader  of  the  Gael  going  on  a  stage  as  a  tinker  ! 


60       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

My  tormenting  grief!     We  are  lost  now  or   never. 
The  fashionable  will  bid  the  League  farewell ! ' 

"  '  It  is  all  the  same  what  hat  you  wear,  O  Chief 
of  ours,'  said  Kevin.  '  The  Gael  will  always  see  a 
wonder-helmet  on  your  head,' 

"  '  Or  a  golden  halo ,'  said  the  Gruagach. 

"  '  It  is  time  for  me  to  be  off  with  myself,'  said 
Douglas,  '  when  ye  grow  so  flattering'  [pldmdsach). 

"  Philip  thought  of  a  truly  ugly  old  hat  in  his  hotel. 
He  brought  it,  and  it  delighted  Douglas  so  much  you 
would  think  it  was  a  jewel. 

"  '  Beyond  all  I  ever  saw ! '  said  Taidhgin  when 
Douglas  was  gone. 

"  '  It  makes  one  joyous,'  said  Kevin,  'The  spirit 
is  simple  and  wonderful  at  the  same  time.  It  is  a 
delightful  thing  that  there  are  such  workers  in  Eire.'  " 

Father  O'Growney  was  a  young  Meath  priest  of 
delicate  constitution  and  burning  enthusiasm  for 
Irish  studies.  Irish  had  long  been  neglected  in 
Maynooth,  but  he  made  it  a  reality ;  when  he  was 
appointed  to  the  chair  of  Irish  a  new  era  for  the 
language  began  in  the  great  ecclesiastical  College. 
His  gentle  individuality,  his  simple  devotedness  had 
a  lasting  effect  on  students.  He  was  the  first  noted 
type  of  the  Irish-minded  young  Maynoothman  of 
whom  latter-day  Ireland  has  heard  and  known  so 
much.  His  series  of  graduated  Irish  lessons,  that 
sold  by  hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  earlier  years 
of  the  Gaelic  League,  helped  learners  far  and  wide ; 
even  now  when  there  are  far  more  modern  and 
scientific  text-books  and  hundreds  of  expert  teachers, 
the  little  green-backed  "O'Growney"  is  regarded 
with  a  certain  affection.  Father  O'Growney  gave  a 
large  part  of  the  young  Maynooth  of  his  time  a  deci- 


COMING  OF  THE  GAELIC  LEAGUE  6. 

sive  impetus  towards  Irish  culture,  and  incidentally 
he  prepared  the  way  for  a  certain  spirit  of  equality 
and  fraternity  between  young  clerics  and  laics.  In  a 
fragile  frame,  with  an  unpretending  nature,  he  was 
a  host  in  himself,  because  he  was  simple  and  great 
enough  to  feel  the  heart  and  understand  the  vision 
of  his  own  people.  He  was  alive  with  the  finer  con- 
sciousness of  Ireland.  He  broke  down  at  an  early 
stage,  and  after  much  suftering  and  vain  voyaging 
and  journeying  for  health  he  died  in  California,  to 
the  grief  of  the  new  generation  and  many  of  the  old. 
His  has  remained  a  fragrant  memory  and  a  beloved 
name.  As  the  Irish  poet  sang  :  "  Is  beo  a  thaise,  ni 
marbh  acht  saoghal  do  "  (His  spirit  lives,  one  life 
of  his  only  is  gone). 

Eoin  (or  John)  MacNeill  was  born  in  Glenarm,  Co. 
Antrim,  in  1867,  and  educated  in  St,  Malachy's 
College,  Belfast.  He  entered  the  Civil  Service, 
which  he  left  only  a  couple  of  years  ago  to  become 
Professor  of  early  and  mediaeval  Irish  history  in  the 
National  University.  A  great  deal  of  his  Gaelic 
education  was  gained,  like  Synge's,  in  the  homes 
and  haunts  of  the  people  in  the  Aran  Islands, 
whither  he  first  went  in  1890,  in  which  year  began 
his  acquaintance  and  his  intimate  friendship  with 
Father  O'Growney.  He  was  the  first  honorary 
secretary  of  the  Gaelic  League,  and  for  a  long  time 
the  editor  of  its  weekly  bi-lingual  organ,  An  Claicl- 
heamh  Soluis.  He  has  ever  been  one  of  its  strongest 
leaders,  one  of  its  clearest  thinkers,  while  a  certain 
gentle  reserve  seems  ever  to  accompany  his  strength 
and  temper  his  enthusiasm.  He  is  a  philosopher  in 
the  true  sense,  and  so  he  seems  apart,  at  times 
isolated,  amongst  the  people  who  love  colour   and 


62       THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

romance  in  life  as  well  as  in  language.  The  lucidity 
and  force  with  which  he  can  state  a  case  or  an  ideal 
they  find  impressive  and  striking  ;  what  they  cannot 
understand  is  why  he  does  not  grow  passionate  or 
picturesque.  Some  find  his  calm  force  in  a  way 
inhuman.  The  fact  is  he  sees  the  whole  Gaelic  ideal 
so  clearly,  and  it  has  become  so  much  a  part  of  him- 
self, that  to  his  philosophic  nature  the  notion  of 
growing  impassioned  about  it  would  be  ludicrous. 
One  might  as  fitly  grow  impassioned  about  starlight 
as  opposed  to  murky  darkness. 

Since  he  began  his  public  work  he  has  preached 
revolutionary  theories  about  the  Celts  in  Ireland.  He 
maintains  that  we  are  mostly  Iberian.  Some  of  us  do 
not  mind  one  way  or  the  other ;  if  he  proves  it  we 
shall  feel  just  as  human  as  ever.  Race-theories  any  way 
have  done  something  to  spoil  the  drama  of  life.  We 
sympathise  with  him  in  the  fact  that  he  "  has  no  use  " 
for  imaginary  Celtic  characteristics  and  the  pathetic 
nonsense  about  "fatalism,"  &c.,  that  springs  from 
superficial  theorising  thereon.  "  Celts  "  and  "  Celtic  " 
critics  have  been  too  much  with  us — Celtic  poets,  of 
course,  are  welcome  in  so  far  as  they  give  us  any  real 
poetry.  Strange  theories  of  what  was  "  Celtic"  came 
into  fashion  after  Mommsen,  Renan,  and  Matthew 
xirnold,  though  in  literary  circles  rather  than  in  life, 
and  being  "  Celtic  "  certain  things  in  national  and 
individual  proceeding  and  fortune  were  regarded  as 
"  inevitable."  With  Mr.  MacNeill  we  have  put  that 
childish  little  theory  to  sleep  in  practice. 

The  Gaelic  League  pioneers  faced  facts,  they  worked 
with  a  fine  faith,  and  did  not  trouble  themselves 
much  about  anybody's  mere  theories. 


CHAPTER   V 
THE   STUDIOUS   IRELAND   OUTSIDE   THE   SCHOOLS 

The  Gaelic  League  worked  from  the  outset  in  a 
simple  and  democratic  way.  It  attracted  some  earnest 
young  men  and  women  in  Dublin,  and  some  old  folk 
for  whom  its  zest  and  spirit  renewed  their  youth. 
In  the  country  and  in  Irish  centres  abroad,  once  it 
emerged  from  obscurity,  it  had  fairly  early  responses. 
Here,  in  a  time  of  politica]  disillusion  and  confusion 
was  something  like  a  garden  of  peace,  and  the  con- 
structive programme  and  the  broad  national  teaching 
of  men  like  MacNeill  and  Hyde  set  thinking  those 
in  the  mood  to  think.  The  League  was  strictly  non- 
political  and  non- sectarian  from  the  start.  Apart 
from  its  Irish  teaching  it  encouraged  the  frank  and 
joyous  social  spirit  always  after  the  Irish  heart  at  its 
best.  Little  class  distinctions  that  had  become  a 
mingled  curse  and  comedy  in  Irish  towns  were  gaily 
ridiculed.  A  speaker  or  teacher  of  Irish,  some  one 
who  could  sing  an  Irish  song  or  tell  an  Irish  story, 
was  rated  higher  than  all  the  "  tone  "  and  "  style  "  in 
the  land.  But  work  was  the  great  essential.  When 
few  or  many  sympathisers  came  together  in  any  town 
or  country  place,  formed  a  "craobh"  or  branch,  and 
had  it  affiliated  with  the  parent  body  in  Dublin,  they 
realised  that  there  were  large  and  steady  tasks  before 
them.  Procedure  would  vary  according  to  the  dis- 
trict.     In    Irish- speaking   or   partly   Irish-speaking 

63 


64       THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

quarters  the  conditions  were  necessarily  very  different 
from  those  in  which  Irish  had  not  been  habitually 
spoken  for  a  generation  or  more.  But  sometimes 
there  would  be  a  native  speaker  or  two  or  several 
at  work  in  such  a  place,  and  consequently  after  some 
practice  and  effort  a  possible  teacher  or  two.  Or  a 
primary  schoolmaster,  or  a  young  priest  fresh  from 
Maynooth,  and  anxious  to  be  worthy  of  Father 
O'Growney,  would  take  up  the  work  of  class  instruc- 
tion. Very  often  a  young  man  or  woman  boldly 
took  up  the  O'Growney  text-books,  ploughed  away 
for  a  time  at  the  lessons,  with  the  aid  of  the  pro- 
nunciation "  keys,"  and  then  faced  a  class  and  took 
it  over  the  same  stages.  Any  old  Irish  speaker  in  the 
neighbourhood,  or  within  walking  or  driving  distance, 
who  could  be  got  to  correct  amateur  pronunciation, 
and  repeat  greetings,  blessings,  proverbs,  songs,  and 
so  on,  was  a  godsend.  Lists  were  made  of  all  the 
surviving  Irish  words  and  phrases  in  the  English 
speech  ;  a  quarter  that  had  anything  from  a  couple  of 
hundred  to  a  thousand  felt  some  reason  to  be  proud 
of  itself.  But  gradually  as  the  League  grew  stronger 
as  an  organisation  the  general  scheme  of  teaching 
was  revolutionised.  For  one  thing,  summer  schools 
were  set  on  foot,  and  then  more  ambitious  summer 
colleges,  where  teachers  of  various  stages  were  in- 
structed still  more  scientifically  in  the  teaching  of 
the  language  on  the  Modh  Direach,  or  direct  method, 
were  established  in  centres  in  Donegal,  Mayo,  Gal- 
way,  Kerry,  Cork,  and  Waterford.  These  were — and 
still  are— ^attended  in  their  holiday  weeks  by  primary 
school  teachers,  young  priests  in  and  out  of  May- 
nooth, and  general  Gaelic  Leaguers  anxious  to  be 


IRELAND   OUTSIDE   THE   SCHOOLS    65 

experts.     In  this  way  there  gradually  arose  a  supply 
of  instructors  of  a  new  order.     These  summer  in- 
stitutions, in  picturesque  haunts,  have  worked  with 
system  and  spirit,  and  in  themselves   are  intensely 
interesting.     Gradually  also  the  League  was  set  in 
the  position  to  employ  a  staff  of  Irish-speaking  organ- 
isers, each  of  them  working  over  a  fairly  large  area, 
with  a  number  of  Muinteoiri  Taisdil,  or  travelling 
teachers,  acting  under  him  in  turn.     The  organisers' 
duties  are  large  and  general :  starting  branches,  ad- 
dressing meetings,  interviewing  managers  and  teachers 
regarding  the  state  and  furtherance  of  Irish  in  the 
local  schools,  helping  towards  the  extended  use  of 
Irish  in  homes  and  in  business,  superintending  the 
work  of  the  various  travelling  teachers,  and  a  score 
of  other  things.    Each  travelling  teacher  has  of  course 
a  smaller  area  for  his  scope,  but  large  enough  in  its 
way,  and  often  rather  trying  in  the  wintry  weather. 
He  teaches  Irish  evening  by  evening  to  adults  and 
children  in  branches  that  have  not  teachers  or  suffi- 
cient teachers  of  their  own,   and  acts  on  mornings 
or  afternoons  as  extern  teacher  of  Irish  in  primary 
schools  where  the  regular  staff  is  not  yet  qualified. 
(The   language    is    taught   in    some    3000    primary 
schools.)     He  also  helps  in  the  organising  of  social 
features  in  the  various  centres,  and  takes  his  turn  as 
Irish  singer,  reciter,  musician,  and  even  dancer  :  a 
minister  of  popular  culture  and  of  sociability.     The 
travelling  teachers,   who   include  a  few   ladies,   are 
altogether    most    interesting  personalities,    like    the 
organisers — theirs  is   an   interesting  new  profession 
in  Ireland — and  some  of  them  are  amongst  our  best 
writers  of  Irish. 

E 


66        THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

This  general  statement  of  mine  can  give  little  idea 
of  the  great  teaching  and  social  scheme  carried  out 
by  the  Gaelic  League  over  the  country,  with  special 
attention  to  the  Lish-speaking  districts,  or  of  the 
difference  it  has  made  in  so  many  places,  progress  of 
course  depending  on  the  degree  of  local  zeal  and 
persistence.  Apart  from  the  Irish  and  musical  side 
of  the  scheme  attention  is  often  given  to  the  further- 
ance of  local  industries,  the  Gaelic  Leaguer  looking 
to  the  body  as  well  as  the  soul  of  the  nation.  The 
organisers,  and  through  them  the  principal  travelling 
teachers,  send  regular  reports  in  Irish  to  the  executive 
of  the  Gaelic  League  at  Rutland  Square,  Dublin. 
For  a  goodly  period,  as  chairman  of  the  organisation 
committee,  I  studied  every  detail  of  them ;  it  was  a 
strangely  arresting  record  of  labour,  devotion,  diffi- 
culty, and  achievement ;  the  whole  affording  a  unique 
insight  into  a  studious  Ireland  outside  the  schools. 
I  often  thought  and  said  that  the  fortunes  of  the 
organisers  and  travelling  teachers  of  the  Gaelic 
League  ought  to  be  a  matter  of  intense  national 
interest.  They  are  doing  work  that  is  bound  to  have 
a  vital  influence  on  the  Irish  history  of  the  near 
future.  What  Ireland's  political  destiny  is  to  be  is 
a  mystery  yet,  though  we  all  trust  that  it  may  be 
bright  and  beneficent ;  but  we  fondly  hope,  and 
feel  with  some  confidence,  that  she  will  develop  a 
vigorous  intellectual,  artistic,  and  social  character, 
illustrating  new  resources  of  mind  and  the  old  deft- 
ness of  hand  and  joy  in  work  under  congenial  and 
natural  conditions.  The  organisers  and  travelling- 
teachers  are  helping  and  working  with  the  rising- 
spirit  that  makes  these  things  possible. 


IRELAND   OUTSIDE   THE    SCHOOLS    67 

There  has  never  been  anything  academic  about 
the  Gaelic  League.  It  has  directed  its  special 
efforts  towards  the  people  with  whom  Irish  is  a 
living  language.  Visits  to,  and  holidays  in,  the 
Irish-speaking  districts  became  popular  from  the 
outset  with  eastern  and  central  students ;  native 
speakers  were  trained  as  teachers  and  set  where 
they  were  needed  and  demanded ;  training  colleges, 
similar  to  the  summer  institutions  in  the  Irish- 
speaking  districts,  were  established  in  Dublin  and 
Belfast  (where  Irish  makes  steady  progress),  and 
work  through  the  autumn,  winter,  and  spring. 
"  Caint  na  ndaoine,"  the  speech  of  the  people,  has 
been  everywhere  the  ideal  of  students.  The  texts 
and  tales  published  year  by  year  have  been  for  the 
most  part  in  natural  and  popular  Irish.  We  have 
a  number  of  writers  whose  prose  is  just  like  country 
speech.  Old  Irish  and  Middle  Irish,  in  which  there 
is  an  extensive  literature,  are  of  course  mainly  matters 
for  scholars  and  specialists — the  School  of  Irish 
Learning  in  Dublin  teaches  them  much  as  Latin  or 
Greek  or  Sanscrit  is  taught,  but  that  is  another  thing 
altogether.  Even  Early  Modern  Irish,  like  that  of 
the  stately  and  impressive  Dr.  Geoffrey  Keating, 
contemporary  of  Shakespeare,  is  rather  remote  and 
difficult  ground  to  the  general  Irish  speaker  and 
student,  though  by  this  time  he  is  tolerably  familiar 
to  the  more  literary,  and  a  few  writers  illustrate  his 
influence.  Dozens  of  old  and  early  modern  tales 
and  poems  have  found  new  life  and  acceptance  in 
modernised  forms  or  capably  annotated  editions.  But 
in  style,  though  not  always  in  subject  and  interest,  the 
newer  popular  literature  is  reflective  of  our  own  day. 


68       THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

Very  early  in  the  century  the  Gaelic  League  had 
attained  a  spacious  development  as  a  teaching, 
propagandist,  publishing,  intellectual,  and  social 
organisation.  Of  course,  in  the  very  diverse  circum- 
stances of  Ireland,  a  land  in  a  transition  stage,  and 
with  unnatural  and  evil  traditions  to  live  down,  its 
fortunes  necessarily  have  been  varying ;  certain  of 
its  difficulties  and  triumphs  we  must  consider  separ- 
ately. Often,  also,  when  for  convenience  we 
speak  of  change  or  achievement  wrought  by  the 
Gaelic  League  we  are  really  referring  to  enkindled 
consciousness  and  exalted  character  in  people  to 
whose  lives  it  has  been  the  means  of  giving  a  new 
impulse  and  direction,  who  have  found  a  quickened 
sense  of  the  romance  and  purpose  of  life  in  them- 
selves and  their  co-workers.  The  new  camaraderie 
and  zest  and  colour  it  has  meant  for  thousands  in 
different  classes  and  creeds  form  to  some  minds  its 
most  appealing  result.  At  an  early  stage,  apart  from 
the  branch  classes  and  other  local  meetings,  general 
periodical  or  annual  gatherings  of  a  literary,  artistic, 
and  social  character  were  organised,  and  these 
musters  of  kindred  spirits  have  brought  a  new 
"  note "  into  Irish  life.  First  came  the  all-Ireland 
festival,  the  Oireachtas,^  in  Dublin,  held  for  some 
years  in  May,  next  in  August,  and  under  present 
arrangements  in  the  first  week  of  July.  With  its 
Irish  language,  literary,  historical,  story-telling,  and 
varied  musical  and  other  competitions  for  children 
and  adults,  with  its  Irish  plays,  concerts,  confer- 
ences, and  industrial  exhibitions,  with  its  numerous 

^  Approximately,  Er'-och-thas,  or  Er-och'-thas :  "  ch  "  sounded  as  in 
"  loch." 


IRELAND    OUTSIDE    THE    SCHOOLS    69 

social  revels,  its  democratic  blending  of  classes  and 
creeds,  its  rallies  of  town  and  village  and  remote 
rural  character,  and  its  Irish  visitors  from  abroad, 
the  Oireachtas  is  unique.  It  is  more  literary  than 
the  Welsh  National  Eisteddfod,  and  some  of  the 
social  glee  reminds  me  of  descriptions  of  the  Fair  of 
Seville.  For  some  years  past  town  and  country 
centres,  north,  south,  east,  and  west,  have  had  their 
own  great  annual  festivals  also ;  nowadays  almost 
every  one  of  them  is  greater  and  more  picturesque 
than  an  early  Oireachtas.  These  festivals,  known  as 
Feiseanna,^  usually  start  with  that  of  Wexford  at 
Whitsuntide,  and  the  series  continues  till  the  late 
autumn.  Sometimes  on  a  particular  day  there  are 
half-a-dozen  Feiseanna  in  diiferent  parts  of  the 
country,  all  with  similar  competitions,  social  features, 
and  often  industrial  exhibitions.  They  mean  gala 
days  in  the  various  towns,  and  bring  to  a  head  the 
quiet  work  of  many  months  in  branch  classes,  schools, 
homes,  and  sometimes  workshops  and  gardens.  One 
who  could  go  on  a  round  of  the  more  typical  ones, 
week  by  week,  taking  the  Oireachtas  in  due  course, 
visiting  also  the  Gaelic  training  colleges,  and  follow- 
ing in  the  winter  and  spring  something  of  the  work 
of  the  travelling  teachers  already  described,  would 
see  a  rather  vivid  and  joyous  Ireland,  exceedingly 
rich  in  character,  and  illustrating  a  new  kind  of 
intensive  culture.  Somehow  at  the  great  festivals 
we  seem  to  live  on  the  bolder  and  freer  plane  of  the 
heroic  sagas ;  there  is  a  sense  of  spiritual  electricity 
in  the  atmosphere ;  and  scores  of  figures  that  have 
become   familiar   personages    in   this  new  Gaeldom 

^  Feis  (Fesh)  singular ;  Feiseanna  (Fesh'-anii)  plural. 


70       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

stand  out  clear  and  distinctive  as  characters  in  those 
ancient  stories  that  are  perennially  alive  and  human. 

It  is  necessarily  in  Irish  that  we  find  the  more 
intimate  expression  of  the  life  and  meaning  of  these 
festivals,  though  modern  Irish  prose  as  yet  is  rather 
more  objective  than  subjective  in  its  interests.  The 
translation  of  a  passage  or  two  of  an  Oireachtas  study 
will  show  how  the  festival  is  looked  at  from  the  Irish 
side : — 

"  Philosophers  say  that  there  is  a  master-mind,  a 
larger  life,  in  every  individual,  though  concealed  and 
unrecognised  save  in  exceptional  moments.  When 
ecstasy  or  exaltation  is  upon  him,  this  larger  life  in  a 
sense  arises  and  comes  to  a  head,  and  the  habitual 
self  departs.  He  sees  then  that  there  is  some  won- 
drous, mystical  bond  between  his  soul  and  the  spirit 
of  the  universe.  The  same  happens  in  the  case  of  a 
nation.  Then  the  nation  understands  that  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  near  it.  Such  is  the  story  of  Eire 
of  the  Gael  in  the  days  of  the  Oireachtas. 

"  The  Greek  believed  that  during  one  of  the  great 
festivals  of  old  he  was  as  large  as  all  Greece.  He 
understood  then  the  divinity  that  was  in  himself.  He 
was  in  unison  with  the  gods  of  Greece.  In  the  same 
way  our  souls  are  exalted  during  the  Oireachtas.  We 
seem  to  dwell  in  a  land  more  delightful  and  more 
glorious  than  the  Ireland  of  the  customary  day,  and 
feel  that  our  nation  is  a  great  spiritual  companion- 
ship. Ours  is  a  sacred,  heavenly  spirit  during  these 
days.  Were  it  to  last  we  would  soon  have  the  golden 
age.  And  why  is  it  not  lasting?  Ours  is  the  fault. 
It  would  last  did  we  will  it. 

"It  is  said  that  far  from  home  are  the  wonders. 


IRELAND   OUTSIDE   THE   SCHOOLS    71 

It  is  untrue.  In  ourselves  are  the  great  wonders. 
But  they  are  hidden  almost  always.  In  an  exceptional 
time,  like  that  of  the  Oireachtas,  we  see  and  feel  in 
a  measure  where  they  are.  That  is  the  prime  good 
of  the  festival ;  it  reveals  to  us  the  power,  the  great 
essence,  the  transcendant  mind  that  are  in  us  un- 
knoAvn  to  us.  Great  were  it  could  we  bring  them 
into  use  and  being.  Then  we  would  have  a  true 
civilisation  in  the  land. 

"  Much  is  being  said  of  socialism  throughout 
Europe.  We  see  one  form  of  socialism  during  the 
Oireachtas :  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  socialism. 
Many  share  their  mental  riches  with  the  masses,  every 
one  works  for  the  sake  of  cause  and  neighbours  and 
country.  All  of  us  are  partakers  in  the  wealth  and 
treasure  of  the  Oireachtas.  None  is  covetous,  all  are 
satisfied.     That  is  the  spirit  of  real  socialism. 

*'  We  have  an  untilled  field  of  intellect  here  in 
Ireland.  It  is  time  for  us  to  cultivate  it  actively, 
earnestly,  and  faithfully.  There  is  no  danger  that 
the  harvest  will  be  otherwise  than  beautiful  and 
wondrous.  According  as  the  intellectual  spirit  of  the 
Oireachtas  strengthens,  we  shall  set  before  us  the 
good  and  benefit  of  the  land  as  a  whole,  in  the  social 
sense  and  in  the  spiritual  sense.  But  the  first  thing 
and  the  greatest  thing  we  have  to  do  is  to  awaken  our 
higher  mind,  to  reveal  and  apply  the  hidden  divinity 
that  is  within  ourselves." 

During  Oireachtas  Week  the  annual  council  of 
delegates  from  Gaelic  League  branches  is  also  held 
in  Dublin.  This  is  known  as  the  Ard-Fheis,^  and  is 
always  a  distinctive  assembly.     It  shows  the  variety 

^  Aurdh-Esh ;  literally,  high  or  chief  I'eib,  Feis  in  this  case  meaning  a 
deliberative  slathering  not  a  festival. 


72       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

of  character  and  class  that  characterises  the  Gaelic 
League  generally,  the  same  earnestness  of  purpose 
and  democracy  of  spirit.  Catholics  and  Protestants, 
priests  and  laymen,  primary  school  teachers,  civil 
servants,  doctors,  shopkeepers  and  shop  assistants, 
workers  of  various  grades,  are  included  in  the  muster. 
The  proceedings  last  for  three  days,  and  of  late 
years  have  been  entirely  in  Irish,  All  the  affairs  of 
the  League  are  reviewed — organisation,  publication, 
finance,  &c.,  and  in  one  form  or  another  the  anomalies 
and  drawbacks  of  Irish  education  systems  are  gene- 
rally under  review.  Indeed  the  assembly  might  often 
be  described  as  an  educational  Parliament.  The  Ard- 
Fheis  elects  the  Coisde  Gnotha,  or  executive  of  the 
League,  for  the  ensuing  year.  The  discussions  are 
generally  animated  but  mostly  to  the  point,  talking 
for  its  owJL  sake  being  almost  unknown  in  the  League's 
councils.  The  variety  of  individuality  and  of  styles 
of  speaking,  the  directness  yet  frequent  richness  and 
raciness  of  language,  the  sometime  novelty  of  local 
idioms  and  phrases,  the  unconscious  music  in  phras- 
ing, the  bursts  of  drollery  or  poetry,  now  and  then 
on  thorny  questions,  the  prevailing  fineness  of  hlas 
(accent  and  flavour)  by  which  the  Irish  speaker  sets 
so  much  store — all  make  the  congress  intensely  in- 
teresting from  the  human  and  linguistic  points  of 
view.  Practically  all  those  men  and  Avomen  are 
proved  workers  in  their  own  localities,  and  they  take 
things  on  the  whole  with  the  fine  seriousness  that 
yet  knows  how  to  be  genial.  On  a  couple  of  occasions, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  Ard-Fheis  has  had  to  deal  with 
clerical  questions  of  an  acute  character.  It  has  faced 
and  finished  them  without  either  weakness  or  passion. 


IRELAND    OUTSIDE   THE   SCHOOLS    73 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  even  approximately 
the  number  of  people  who  in  one  way  or  another 
have  come  under  the  influence  of  the  Gaelic  League. 
The  large  membership  of  the  1400  branches  on  its 
rolls  (several  very  powerful,  many  moderately  large, 
some  small)  is  not  fully  indicative  of  its  strength. 
The  home  truths  preached  at  its  public  meetings, 
the  verve  and  music  of  its  festivals,  have  afl"ected 
thousands  who  are  not  regular  workers.  It  has 
come  home  to  everybody  concerned  in  or  connected 
with  Irish  education,  and  made  a  deep  difi'erence 
already  in  the  popular  sense  of  what  that  education 
ought  to  be.  The  number  of  folk  in  high  and 
humble  stations  it  has  made  speakers,  readers,  and 
even  writers  of  Irish,  is  very  large.  Its  indirect 
efi"ects  in  the  way  of  temperance,  manliness,  in- 
telligent national  spirit,  are  considerable.  It  has 
diverted  hundreds  of  individual  lives  into  new 
channels  and  destinies,  and  even  drawn  many  home 
to  work  again  in  Ireland — in  this  connection  the 
London  Gaelic  League,  for  instance,  has  expressive 
stories  to  tell.  Developments  abroad,  like  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Gaelic  League  Alliance  throughout 
the  United  States  in  1911,  do  not  come  within  my 
present  purpose,  beyond  noting  that  the  moral  and 
material  result  may  be  considerable. 

Most  interesting  of  all  is  the  League's  efl"ect  even 
thus  early  on  conceptions  of  life,  and  incidentally  its 
experiences  in  sundry  ways  with  Churchmen.  And 
those  who  know  much  of  the  trend  of  young  minds 
now  in  certain  of  the  schools  and  colleges  expect 
far  greater  results,  both  creative  and  critical,  in  the 
near  future. 


CHAPTEK   VI 
WAR    ABOUT    WOMAN 

The  clash  of  Gaelic  and  Roman  conceptions  of  man, 
woman,  and  life,  in  early  and  late  mediaeval  years, 
and  even  in  modern  times,  has  been  far  greater  than 
is  generally  imagined.  England,  or  England's  re- 
presentatives in  Ireland,  came  unconsciously  to  the 
aid  of  Rome  again  and  again.  The_ruin  of  the 
Gaelic  order  and  culture  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
penal  laws  against  Catholics  on  the  other,  had  an 
effect  that  England  neither  intended  nor  understood  : 
they  set  the  priest  and  what  he  chose  to  teaclrin  a 
pride  of  place,  popularity,  and  dominance  impossible 
of  attainment  otherwise.  The  position  of  the  priests 
as  the  managers  of  Irish  primary  schools,  under  the 
segis  of  England,  since  the  early  thirties  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  has  been  a  great  further  factor  for 
Romanisation  and  clericalism  as  against  Gaelicism. 
I  use  the  term  "  Romanisation,"  because  it  is  ex- 
pressive and  convenient.  It  is  not  to  be  associated 
with  essential  Catholicism ;  in  the  opinion  of  sundry 
Irish  Catholic  laymen  and  not  a  few  priests  there  is 
a  good  deal  in  Vaticanism  and  clericalism  which  is 
anything  but  Catholicism.  And  doubtless  in  their 
deepest  and  purest  essence  essential  Christianity  and 
Gaelicism  are  at  one.  But  often  as  manifested  and 
interpreted    in    Ireland    Christianity  has    seemed   a 


WAR   ABOUT   WOMAN  75 

strange  importation.  The  spirit  of  the  great  old 
stories  and  the  popular  lays  that  have  never  really 
lost  their  hold  on  the  Gael  is  in  utter  contrast  to 
much  in  the  Roman  conception  as  usually  under- 
stood. Young  clerics  themselves  admit  the  beauty 
and  appeal  of  the  old  lore  that  is  ever  living  because 
it  sprang  from  deep  hearts  and  exalted  experiences. 
"  Irish  literature  has  from  the  beginning  set  forth  a 
noble  ideal  of  womanhood.  Whether  it  is  Deirdre 
the  pagan  or  Liadain  the  Christian,  woman  appears 
almost  divine,  a  sort  of  intermediary  between  earth 
and  heaven.  .  .  .  The  Brehon  Law  clearly  lays 
down  the  rights  of  woman,  and  the  independence  of 
her  position  in  real  life  is  only  what  might  be  ex- 
pected from  her  dignified  position  in  poetry  and 
romance."  So  said  one  such  cleric,  a  gifted  Meath 
seminary  Professor,  in  a  lecture  to  the  Gaelic  Society 
of  Art  Students,  Dublin,  in  June  1906.  In  the 
same  lecture  he  said:  "The  romance  of  Cuchulainn 
and  Emer  in  Pagan  times  cannot  be  surpassed  for 
beauty  of  thought  and  delicacy  of  feeling."  These 
stories  have  never  ceased  to  be  a  living  influence  in 
parts  of  Ireland,  and,  what  is  more  important,  the 
ideal  of  woman,  so  sharply  opposed  to  the  average 
ecclesiastical  view,  has  not  been  destroyed  amongst 
sections  of  the  people.  In  well-remembered  Gaelic 
lore  the  beginning  of  love  is  associated  with  godli- 
ness and  immortal  music ;  the  magical  birds  of 
Angus  Og  (Aonghus  Og),  the  God  of  Love,  sing 
above  the  lovers. 

"  Beautiful  is  the  beginning  of  love, 
A  youth  and  a  maid  and  the  birds  of  Angus  above 
them." 


76       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

Angus  and  his  birds  have  become  wonderfully  vivid 
in  the  latter-day  Irish  imagination.  In  verse  and 
prose  and  discourse  they  are  much  with  us.  The 
return  and  re-manifestation  of  Angus  might  form  the 
theme  of  a  delicate  causerie.  Mr.  Standish  O'Grady, 
who  in  a  brilliant  prose  revel  before  the  rise  of  the 
Gaelic  League  had  himself  paid  tribute  to  the  mystic 
birds,  thought  in  later  years  that  the  cult  thereof 
was  in  the  way  of  being  overdone,  and  he  pleaded  for 
peace,  or  at  least  less  rapture,  in  their  regard ;  but 
he  pleaded  in  vain.  "  If  music  be  the  food  of  love, 
play  on,"  said  Shakespeare,  and  young  Ireland  bids 
the  birds  of  Angus  sing  on.  But  this  is  by  the  way. 
A  popular  illustration  of  the  sheer  and  sometimes 
violent  clash  of  clerical  and  Gaelic  ideas  is  afforded  by 
certain  of  the  Dialogues  between  Oisin  and  Patrick, 
some  of  which  are  readily  recited  to  this  day  by 
western  country  folk.  They  have  also  passed  from 
hand  to  hand  in  various  manuscripts — even  in  the 
nineteenth  century  we  had  tireless  transcribers — and 
in  some  printed  books  ;  the  edition  before  me,  Ossianic 
Society  s  Transactions,  vol.  iv.,  was  printed  in  Dublin 
in  1859,  a  date  when  many  people  imagine  that  Irish 
literature  and  its  publication  were  entirely  neglected. 
With  vigour  of  heart  and  loving  vision  Oisin  defends 
the  old  pre-Patrician  life  of  prowess  and  sporting,  of 
learning,  hospitality,  and  cheer,  of  the  ardour  of 
comrades  and  the  love  of  woman,  of  the  virtues 
of  courage,  truth,  generosity,  sincerity,  and  clean- 
heartedness ;  and  with  a  frankness  and  freedom  that 
are  sometimes  almost  startling  ridicules  the  new 
clerics  of  the  lean  views  and  leaner  virtues,  the 
crooked  croziers,   and,   to   his   brave,    simple   spirit, 


WAR  ABOUT   WOMAN  77 

the  still  more  crooked  philosophy.  And  Patrick's 
answer  again  and  again  is  the  time-honoured  sen- 
tence of  damnation ;  he  replies  to  opposition  with 
the  threat  of  hell,  though  he  differs  from  many  of 
his  modern  successors  through  a  certain  mildness 
of  mood  and  utterance.  "Is  mairg  bheir  taobh  re 
cleir  na  clog  "  (Woe  to  him  that  trusts  in  clerics  or 
bells),  says  Oisin ;  he  proudly  declares  that,  old  and 
feeble  as  he  is,  were  two  of  his  bygone  comrades  on 
the  scene,  by  every  way  they  went  of  old  they  would 
go  again  despite  the  clerics ;  the  missing  of  a  deer  in 
his  heyday  would  give  him  more  concern  than  if  all 
the  clerics  lost  their  heads ;  he  would  prefer  a  sight 
of  the  old  clan  of  the  stout  arms  to  the  whole  troop 
of  crooked  croziers ;  the  preacher's  voice  is  dull  and 
without  cheer  to  him,  he  yearns  for  the  blackbird's 
song  and  a  trout  in  the  rivulet ;  a  cleric  more  hospi- 
table than  Fionn  never  sat  in  a  church ;  he  (Oisin) 
has  a  good  claim  on  God,  suffering  among  clerics  as 
he  does :  without  feasting,  without  music,  without 
the  cry  of  hounds  and  horns,  without  the  love  of 
generous  women,  without  feats  of  agility  and  com- 
bat ;  all  the  qualities  attributed  by  Patrick  and  his 
clerics  to  their  heaven's  king,  he  declares  in  a  bold 
burst,  were  possessed  by  Fionn  and  the  host  of  the 
Fianna,  and  were  there  a  place,  above  or  below, 
better  than  heaven  it  is  there  Fionn  and  his  heroes 
would  go.  Such  is  a  slight  and  fragmentary  illustra- 
tion of  the  standpoint  of  one  human-hearted  anti- 
cleric  w^io  has  retained  an  epic  place  in  the  Gaelic 
imagination  through  the  ages. 

The  spirit  of  Oisin  had  a  hard  struggle  with  Irish 
clericalism.     To   put  it  in   another  way,   the  Irish 


78       THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

heart  and  the  joyous  Irish  social  spirit  had  a  life- 
and-death  struggle  with  types  of  Irish  ecclesiasticism. 
In  the  nineteenth  century  in  rural  places  it  was 
often  acute,  though  sometimes  the  heart  and  spirit 
gave  way  in  a  sort  of  terrorism  before  the  priest.  In 
his  day  of  dominance  he  did  much  to  make  Irish 
local  life  a  dreary  desert.  He  waged  war  on  the 
favourite  cross-roads  dances — with  exceptions  here 
and  there — and  on  other  gatherings  where  young 
men  and  women  congregated,  even  in  the  company 
of  their  older  relations  and  friends.  Indeed  there 
were  cases  where  the  priest,  whip  in  hand,  entered 
private  houses  and  dispersed  social  parties.  The 
resulting  dullness  and  deadliness  of  life  in  rural 
parishes  drove  not  a  few  of  the  young  folk  to 
America  or  Australia.  After  the  Land  League  there 
was  often  a  different  spirit,  and  this  clerical  attitude 
was  resented,  and  resentment  led  to  resistance,  in 
places.  There  were  always  some  joyous-hearted 
priests,  and  some  who  had  no  feeling  one  way  or 
the  other  in  regard  to  rural  amenities,  but,  speaking 
generally,  the  older  priests  in  the  last  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  were  no  friends  of  sport  or  gaiety 
or  social  muster,  and  were  often  its  relentless  enemies. 
They  saw  moral  danger  in  the  most  innocent  meetings 
of  the  young  folk  of  whom  they  had  had  the  spiritual 
training  and  who  were  part  of  what  they  declared 
in  glowing  sermons  and  speeches  to  be  the  most 
virtuous  and  most  spiritual  race  under  the  sun. 
Their  notions  of  woman  recalled  the  fearful  and 
wonderful  pronouncements  of  some  of  the  early 
Fathers.  Love  in  the  main  was  devilish,  a  subtle 
and  odious  poison  designed  to  set  young  souls  in 


WAR   ABOUT    WOMAN  79 

the  way  of  eternal  perdition.  That  there  could  be 
anything  sanctified  or  spiritual  in  it  of  itself  never 
seemed  to  enter  into  the  consciousness  or  philosophy 
of  those  priests,  and  sickly  and  melodramatic  were 
the  notions  of  it  that  they  spread.  The  bare  thought 
of  company-keeping  or  courtship  filled  them  with 
horror.  After  several  changes  theologians  had  fixed 
the  number  of  Deadly  Sins  as  seven ;  Irish  parish 
priests  in  practice  made  courtship  an  eighth.  For 
lovers  to  walk  the  roadside  in  rural  Ireland  when 
the  average  priest  was  abroad  was  a  perilous  adven- 
ture. He  challenged  engaged  couples,  on  occasions 
he  challenged  married  people.  In  our  Boyne  Valley 
days  there  w^as  a  piquant  instance  of  the  former,  but 
the  clergyman  who  interfered  had  scarcely  the  best 
of  it.  In  such  cases,  the  local  story  ran,  the  clergy- 
man in  question  generally  made  it  a  point  to  seize 
the  young  lady's  hat  before  ordering  her  homeward, 
and  by  that  period  he  was  reputed  to  have  a  pretty 
stock  of  such  spoils  in  a  room  of  the  presbytery. 
This  latter  touch  may  have  had  no  better  foundation 
than  local  fancy ;  while  I  heard  much  of  his  notions 
and  exploits  only  the  one  instance  of  his  dramatic 
interference — with  the  engaged  pair — came  to  my 
personal  knowledge.  But  the  full  tale  of  the  Irish 
clerical  war  on  lovers  would  make  a  big,  strange 
volume  of  repression  and  adventure. 

Such  repression  will  be  stoutly  defended  to-day, 
though  the  sphere  of  its  exercise  is  necessarily  be- 
coming more  limited,  by  a  number  of  the  older  priests. 
It  arises  from,  or  has  been  intensified  by,  their  philo- 
sophy of  human  nature  and  their  rigid  theology, 
and   argument   against  it   is   vain,  if  not  well-nigh 


80       THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

"  heretical."  They  see  in  man  a  miserable  worm, 
and  they  believe  that  love  of  woman  makes  him  not 
a  less  but  a  more  miserable  worm — that  is  to  say, 
love  of  woman  in  itself;  when  they  have  blessed 
a  union  it  is  another  matter.  Their  sere  and  short- 
sighted teaching  on  the  subject  of  love,  or  rather 
their  denunciation  of  it,  has  done  much  to  blight 
and  mar  and  materialise  humanity  in  a  deal  of  rural 
Ireland.  It  is  largely,  though  not  wholly,  respon- 
sible for  the  fact  that  marriages  in  the  Irish  farming 
class — to  a  goodly  extent  their  own  class — are  often 
repellently  materialistic,  the  outcome  of  "match- 
making," which  is  human  buying  and  selling.  In 
the  marriage  compact  love  does  not  usually  enter 
into  the  Irish  farmer's  calculations.  He  takes  up 
the  question  of  marrying  some  woman,  often  an  utter 
stranger,  as  a  business  speculation.  There  is  much 
negotiation  as  to  the  dowry  or  "fortune"  she  must 
bring  him,  and  if  an  agreement  is  arrived  at  regarding 
this,  and  if  incidentally  the  lady  passes  muster,  the 
arrangements  for  the  wedding  proceed,  and  later  on 
the  dowry  brought  by  the  wife  can  be  used  to  portion 
off  one  of  the  bridegroom's  sisters  and  make  her 
acceptable  to  some  strange  man  in  the  same  w^ay. 
Or  it  may  be  a  daughter's  case  first ;  the  "  principle  " 
and  the  bargaining  are  much  the  same  in  most  cases. 
Before  the  marriage  takes  place  a  further  arrange- 
ment has  to  be  made  with  the  priest  regarding  the 
fees  for  the  celebration  of  the  ceremony ;  and  this 
is  one  of  the  most  disagreeable  features  of  the 
whole  forbidding  business.  Irish  Nation  contributors 
tackled  these  sore  scandals,  with  their  economic, 
moral,  and  other  bearings ;  and  priests  were  keenly 


WAR   ABOUT    WOMAN  81 

distressed  over  their  public  consideration,  but  none 
of  them  ventured  to  deny  either  the  facts  or  the 
inferences.  They  only  tried  to  discover  the  identity 
of  the  chief  contributor  and,  in  their  view,  offender, 
and  the  present  editor  of  An  Claidheamh  Soluis,^ 
the  Gaelic  League  official  weekly,  then  a  travelling 
teacher,  felt  called  upon  to  write  to  the  press  from 
the  west  proclaiming  that  he  was  not  the  dreadful 
individual.  What  the  actual  culprit  had  said  in 
part  was  : — 

'*  At  school  we  were  told  that  matrimony  was  a 
sacrament.  In  parts  of  rural  Ireland  to-day  marriage 
has  largely  lost  its  spiritual  significance,  and  de- 
generated into  a  commercial  transaction.  Some  of 
the  clergy  have  unfortunately  developed  the  habit  of 
viewing  it  from  the  material  standpoint.  Instances 
have  come  under  the  writer's  notice  that  would  seem 
incredible.  We  spent  a  long  time  in  a  country  parish 
out  in  the  diocese  of  Elphin,  and  observed  many 
things  that  caused  quite  a  shock  to  our  town-begotten 
ideas.  Marriage  was  viewed  by  the  whole  country- 
side much  in  the  same  light  as  trucking  with  cattle 
at  a  fair.  The  daughter  was  reserved  for  the  highest 
bidder,  no  matter  if  he  was  a  physical  or  mental  de- 
generate. The  guiding  principle  resolved  itself  into, 
'  Is  it  a  good  match  ? ' 

"In  the  district  a  very  large  percentage  never  saw 
their  present  husbands  or  wives  until  a  few  days  before 
the  marriage.  The  parents  often  make  a  match  on  a 
fair  day  in  the  town  and  reach  home  with  the  news, 
telling  the  son  or  daughter  they  will  be  married  on 

^  Kly'-av  or  Klee'-av  Sul'-ish  (the  "  d  "  and  "  m  "  are  "  aspirated  ").     It 
means  the  "  Sword  of  Light." 

F 


82       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

that  day  week,  and  '  a  £200  fortune.'  The  priest  who 
performs  the  service  ascertains  the  amount  of  the 
'  fortune  '  and  charges  a  high  figure.  Often  he  regu- 
lates it  in  ratio  to  the  number  of  acres  or  the  stock  the 
parties  possess.  In  the  case  of  a  poor  man,  a  labourer, 
the  fee  was  £4  ;  a  schoolmaster  £10.  A  bargain  was 
always  struck  in  the  'fortune'  matches,  and  the  holy 
sacrament  was  often  prefaced  by  such  a  conversation 
as  'Do  it  for  £13,  Father' — 'No,  I  won't  marry  you 
under  £16'— 'Split  the  difference,  Father,'  &c.  &c. 

"  We  must  examine  closely  the  case  of  the  labourer 
who,  having  no  patrimony,  excepting  perhaps  a 
humble  cot,  contemplates  wedded  bliss.  His  chosen 
is  similarly  circumstanced — poor,  unable  to  reach  the 
Great  West,  or  she,  too,  would  have  followed  in  the 
track  of  her  sisters.  Her  parents'  poverty  has  also 
been  the  cause  of  her  remaining  without '  the  fortune.' 
How  are  these  two  creatures  to  find  the  bright  coin  ? 
The  Church  will  refuse  to  tie  the  knot  until  it  is 
forthcoming." 

With  incidental  differences  of  detail  this  Connacht 
parish  picture  would  stand  for  scores  of  other  parishes 
north  and  south.  The  only  really  unusual  thing 
about  the  article  and  others  lay  in  the  public  dis- 
cussion of  the  questions,  serious  ones  for  Church  and 
nation.  Another  aspect  was  put  by  a  Wexford 
contributor : — 

"  The  transition  from  tillage  land  to  grass  is  simple 
and  corresponds  with  the  ageing  of  the  owners. 
'  Fortune  '-hunting  is  engrafted  into  the  nature  of 
the  people,  and  no  farmer's  son  can  marry  until  he 
gets  a  wife  who  will  bring  him  a  '  fortune '  sufficient 
to  portion  off  his  own  sister.     The  clergy  regard  this 


WAR   ABOUT   WOMAN  83 

as  a  matter  of  course,  and  if  a  farmer  has  more  than 
the  son  who  is  to  succeed  him,  if  two  of  them  do  not 
emigrate  or  go  to  the  nearest  town  to  serve  out  beer 
or  soft  goods,  the  three  boys  and  perhaps  a  sister  live 
along  in  single  '  blessedness.'  To  divide  the  farm  is 
impossible  ;  they  have  no  education  that  would  en- 
able them  to  work  it  at  a  profit  and  set  two  of  them 
up  in  farms  of  their  own.  They  get  careless,  and 
setting  grass  yields  a  profit,  so  the  land  is  set.  The 
marriage  rate  is  only  kept  up  to  its  present  low 
standard  by  those  who  can  least  afi'ord  it,  and  where 
a  maiTiage  amongst  people  of  the  farming  class  takes 
place  it  is  purely  a  matter  of  business  with  no  '  foolish 
sentiment '  attached," 

The  economic,  industrial,  and  national  bearing  of 
these  matters  the  older  clergy  do  not  seem  to  realise 
or  trouble  about.  As  to  the  moral  question,  it  is 
enough  for  them  that,  though  the  parties  are  virtual 
strangers  to  each  other  and  there  cannot  be  any  pre- 
tence of  mutual  affection,  a  Church  ceremony  takes 
place.  They  would  be  shocked  at  the  notion  that 
such  a  ceremony  does  not  make  the  union  sacra- 
mental, whatever  the  commercial  or  animal  feeling  of 
one  or  other  or  both  of  the  parties.  Yet  that  is  just 
what  a  growing  proportion  of  Irish  lay  folk  is  begin- 
ning to  think.  The  feeling  of  repugnance  to  such 
marriages  and  of  doubt  over  the  assumption  that 
a  Church  ceremony  rights  a  wrong,  is  increasing 
amongst  the  younger  generation.  Catholic  theology 
itself  would  appear  to  be  on  their  side.  Newman's 
interpretation,  already  given,  is  rather  expressive  in 
this  connection,  in  so  far  as  it  emphasises  the  mental 
attitude  rather  than  the  rite. 


84       THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

The  Gaelic  League  was  not  long  in  being  when 
woman  of  various  classes  and  degrees  had  come  out 
smiling  from  the  social  and  mental  concentration 
camp  in  which  the  clerg)^  would  keep  her.  Ecclesi- 
astics were  confronted  with  grave  new  problems. 
With  all  this  the  Gaelic  League  as  an  organisation 
had  nothing  to  do,  at  least  directly.  Its  official 
business  is  to  preserve  and  extend  Irish  as  a  spoken 
and  written  language,  and  to  widen  the  ways  of  a 
modern  literature  therein.  But  in  the  very  nature 
of  the  case  it  must  have  social,  psychological,  and 
other  effects,  some  of  them  exceedingly  subtle.  The 
very  fact  of  bringing  young  people  of  both  sexes  to- 
gether in  branch  classes,  and  in  social  rallies,  and  at 
public  festivals,  means  the  breaking  of  new  ground. 

The  sense  that  they  are  co-workers  in  a  movement 
that  is  broad-based  on  practical  idealism  and  faith, 
that  demands  their  best,  needing  for  its  success  the 
worthiest  individual  and  co-operative  effort,  creates, 
so  far  as  the  finer  spirits  are  concerned,  a  new  stir 
and  harmony  in  the  social  and  psychic  atmosphere. 
In  sooth,  in  hundreds  of  instances,  the  Gaelic  League 
has  been  the  means  of  sweetening  the  air,  creating 
delightful  friendships,  and  leading  to  still  deeper  ties. 
The  enrichment  in  the  way  of  friendships  and  fealties 
that  has  been  wrought  by  the  League  has  been  often 
commented  upon,  indeed  it  is  open  and  palpable  to 
every  worker  ;  while  the  story  of  happy  and  romantic 
marriages  from  its  ranks  would  make  an  extensive 
volume.  In  cities  and  several  towns  and  some  country 
places,  the  clergy,  whatever  they  thought,  have  not 
been  powerful  enough  to  interfere  with  the  growth 
of  this  new  chivalry;  but  it  has  greatly  agitated  a 


WAR   ABOUT    WOMAN  85 

number  of  them,  and  they  have  fought  hard  in  places 
against  mixed  classes.  The  struggle  has  sometimes 
been  stormy.  The  memorable  case  of  Portarlington, 
which  lasted  for  years,  and  became  of  all-Ireland 
interest,  is  described  in  a  separate  section.  From 
several  points  of  view  it  makes  a  significant  chapter 
of  New  Ireland  history. 

Types  of  the  younger  priesthood  in  their  casual 
social  hours  and  conversations  treat  the  conventional 
clerical  attitude  to  love  and  womanhood  with  a  certain 
airiness  and  piquancy.  They  seize  the  opportunity 
of  a  jest  just  as  readily  as  any  layman.  Once  at 
the  Oireachtas  amongst  the  plays  produced  was  Ar 
Thaohh  an  Locha  ("  By  the  Lake-Side  "),  by  Father 
Thomas  O'Kelly,  a  gifted  young  priest,  who  ere  he 
left  Maynooth  had  written  an  Irish  folk-play  and 
translated  Mr.  W.  B.  Yeats's  Kathleen  JSi  Honlahan 
into  Irish.  As  the  great  throng  made  its  way  out  of 
the  Rotunda,  a  merry  young  Connacht  priest  said  to 
me  :  "  Ba  leir  gur  sagart  do  sgriobh  an  cluiche  sin. 
Nuair  thd,inig  an  laoch  a-bhaile  sa  deire  nior  phog  se 
a  mhathair  fein ! "  (It  was  easy  to  see  that  it  was  a 
priest  who  wrote  that  play.  When  the  hero  came 
home  at  the  close  he  did  not  kiss  even  his  mother!) 
Father  O'Kelly,  however,  wrote  about  the  same  time 
a  strong  and  moving  play  of  '98,  An  Fo'mhar  ("  The 
Harvest "),  in  which  the  love  interest  was  dramatic, 
and  still  later  an  Irish  drama  on  the  famous  story  of 
Deirdre,  in  which  it  could  not  well  fail  to  be  so.  But 
at  the  Oireachtas  of  1909  his  Irish  libretto  for  Mr. 
Robert  O'Dwyer's  opera,  Eithne — a  memorable  artistic 
success — was  the  occasion  of  an  amusing  little  crisis 
about  kissing,  or  the  absence  thereof.     At  a  late  stage 


86       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

of  the  romantic  happenings,  based  on  an  Irish  wonder- 
story,  a  queen  is  restored  to  her  king-husband.  The 
artist  who  played  the  king  maintained  during  the 
rehearsals  that  the  young  lady  who  impersonated 
the  queen  ought  obviously  to  be  kissed  for  art's  sake 
at  the  joyous  restoration.  The  coy  maiden  objected. 
She  pointed  out  that  there  was  nothing  about  cares- 
sing or  kissing  in  Father  O'Kelly's  libretto.  The  artist 
could  not  gainsay  this,  but  he  thought  a  young  author- 
cleric  would  modestly  leave  such  things  for  the 
imagination.  Any  artist  would  see  that  on  the  loved 
one's  return,  "after  long  grief  and  pain,"  a  mere  bow 
or  a  hand-shake  would  make  the  blood  of  an  Irish 
audience  turn  cold.  The  lady  was  still  obdurate ;  she 
had  received  a  convent  education,  and  the  artist  was 
a  married  man.  But,  he  indignantly  insisted,  that 
had  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  for  the  nonce,  in  the  world 
of  art,  she  was  his  wife,  his  long-lost  wife  restored  to 
his  arms  and  lips,  or  at  least  ought  to  be.  The  lady 
at  last  agreed  to  submit  the  question  to  a  clerical  con- 
fidant. He  decided  against  the  kiss,  and  that  settled 
the  matter.  At  the  public  performances  the  audience 
felt  chilled  at  the  restoration  scene.  The  artist  after- 
wards was  much  chaffed  about  what  seemed  his 
reserve  and  coldness  at  the  happy  moment.  He  de- 
fended himself  with  solemnity  touched  by  passion. 
His  disgust  with  the  lady  who  would  not  kiss  him 
for  art's  sake  was  delightful  to  witness. 

At  social  gatherings  the  young  priests  are  often  as 
blithe  as  the  best.  They  play  Irish  music  and  now 
and  then,  with  twinkling  eyes,  sing  Irish  love-songs, 
the  ardent  sentiments  of  which  on  clerical  lips — 
even   though   obviously  the  outcome   of  a   piquant 


WAR   ABOUT   WOMAN  87 

artistic  pose — would  be  a  positive  shock  to  most  of 
their  older  brethren.  They,  and  indeed  some  of  the 
senior  priests,  expand  wonderfully  in  the  animating 
hours  after  Gaelic  festivals,  recalling  those  occasional 
big-hearted  clerics,  Franciscans  and  others,  of  social 
and  lyrical  bent,  who  were  in  their  element  at 
local  bardic  musters  in  the  eighteenth  century — 
gatherings  whose  story  and  significance  make  a 
strange  gleam  in  a  dark  period  of  Irish  history. 
Other  young  priests  who  are  little  inclined  personally 
to  joyousness — there  are  very  grave  and  wistful  types 
— admit  frankly  that  the  old  order  of  dictation  and 
repression  has  been  against  nature,  a  curse  to  priests 
and  people.  As  to  woman  and  her  spells,  for  deliver- 
ance from  which  St.  Patrick  and  so  many  clerics 
since  have  prayed,  they  are  inclined  to  think  that 
a  reasonable  exercise  of  them — if  there  is  reason  in 
such  things — would  do  various  Irish  people  good, 
especially  the  farmers. 

In  other  ways  the  Gaelic  League  has  brought 
woman  into  pride  of  place.  On  the  executive,  and 
in  district  and  branch  committees,  women  are  well 
to  the  fore.  Several  of  the  most  briUiant  teachers 
and  speakers,  and  a  few  of  the  best  writers,  of  Irish 
are  women.  But,  indeed,  in  various  interesting  and 
zestful  quarters  to-day,  as  in  the  Abbey  Theatre, 
Cluic'eoiri  na  h-Eireann  (Theatre  of  Ireland),  Inghini 
na  h-Eireann  (Daughters  of  Ireland),  the  Irish- 
women's Franchise  League,  the  United  Irishwomen 
(allies  of  the  co-operative  movement),  &c.  &c.,  there 
are  distinctive  Irish  women  pioneers.  Far  from 
satisfactoiy  as  it  is  in  a  hundred  places  and  ways, 
the   position   of  Irish    women   is   at   any  rate   im- 


S8       THE   POPES   GREEN    ISLAXD 

proving,  inasmuch  as  several  have  seized  all  the 
possibilities  of  education  to  the  full,  and  are  spread- 
ing progressive  and  generous  social  ideas  amongst 
their  sisters,  and  their  brothers  for  that  matter.  In 
the  older  GaeHc  Ireland  women  were  doctors,  laAvyers, 
litterateurs,  art-workers,  and  more,  and  had  gene- 
rally a  rather  enviable  intellectual  and  social  posi- 
tion, as  ^Irs.  Fitzgerald  ("  Maire  ui  Chinneide  "),  the 
author  of  picturesque  Irish  plays  and  a  study  of 
Anatole  France  in  Irish,  reminded  her  sisters  in  an 
attractive  historical  review  in  1910.  Long  though 
the  way  may  be,  it  looks  as  if  the  Ii-ishwoman  is 
coming  towards  her  own  again.  Curiously  enough, 
save  for  an  occasional  leal  and  chivalrous  knight 
like  Mr.  Sheehy-Sketfiugton,  or  a  brilliant  apologist 
like  Professor  Kettle,  pronounced  politicians  have  no 
more  to  say  for  her  than  the  conservative  clerics 
themselves.     All  the  same  she  has  be2:un  a  new  era. 


CHAPTER   VII 

ECCLESIASTICS,  EVE,  AND  LITERATURE 

Young  priests  sometimes  gave  their  lay  ftiends  the 
impression  that  there  was  something  not  only 
sacrificial  but  tragic  in  their  lives.  Now  and  then 
a  young  cleric  would  declare  that  the  "Pagans" 
had  practically  aU  the  beauty,  poetry,  and  joy  of  life, 
but  this  was  probably  the  expression  of  a  mood 
rather  than  a  conviction.  In  the  Irish  Peasant  I 
published  this  sonnet,  which  expresses  more  than  a 
mood,  by  a  young  priest : — 

Sacrifice 

*'  Unless  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  itself 
remaineth  alone ;  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit." 

— John  xii.  24. 

"  Mine  be  the  lonely  way  for  evermore 

That  winds  still  onward  'neath  a  grey  cold  sky, 
Life's  pleasant  places  far  behind  me  lie. 
The  sunshine  and  the  flow'rs  and  the  white  shore, 
Where  youth's  sand-castles  early  toppled  o'er 
By  Time's  remorseless  tide,  fade  dreamily 
In  the  great  deep  of  memory, 

Good-bye 
Sweet  days.     Welcome,  the  way  that  looms  before  ! 

And,  manhood,  wherefore  com'st  thou  thus  to  me 
Claiming  the  sacrifice  of  all  held  dear? 
Why  must  sweet  voices  ever  silent  be  ? 

And  faces  that  I  loved  without  a  tear 

Be  turned  away  ?     'Tis  but  the  old  decree, 

'  The  seed  must  die  to  yield  the  ripened  ear.' " 


90       THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

Numerous  Irish  boys  are  marked  out  for  the  priest- 
hood by  their  parents  from  childhood,  by  way  of 
giving  a  certain  dignity  to  the  family,  and  without 
any  ithought  of  their  capacity  or  fitness  for  the 
calfing.  They  are  duly  subjected  to  the  training, 
discipline,  and  what  some  would  call  the  hypnotism 
of  the  seminary  and  subsequently  the  ecclesiastical 
college.  The  authorities  are  satisfied  that  students 
who  really  have  no  "  vocation "  for  the  priesthood 
will  not  pass  muster  with  them,  but  on  that  there 
is  room  for  two  opinions.  Ordination  takes  place 
while  the  candidates  are  still  very  young,  and  there 
is  plenty  of  possibility  of  mistaken  decisions  and 
consequent  tragedy,  more  or  less.  But  little  outward 
sign  of  anything  of  this  nature  is  ever  given. 
Worldliness,  or  lapses  from  strict  temperance,  or 
the  usual  or  more  than  the  usual  intellectual  and 
other  faults  of  ecclesiasticism  grown  rigid,  may  be 
laid  to  the  charge  of  a  proportion  of  the  Irish  priests, 
especially  the  older  ones,  but  otherwise  their  personal 
lives  are  strictly  regulated  and  often  exemplary. 
Theirs  is  a  sensitive  or  a  severe  morality.  Of  the 
many  things  that  were  illustrated  or  discussed  in 
The  Plough  and  the  Cross  the  two  that  hurt  most 
deeply,  as  I  learned  directly  and  indirectly,  were  the 
scheme  of  a  modernist  character  for  linking  Irish 
Catholics  with  the  Greek  Church,  and  still  more  the 
plea  of  an  ex-student  of  Maynooth  for  an  order  of 
married  priests.  Many  priests,  he  said,  might  not 
desire  to  marry.  "Those  who  wish  to  do  so  should 
be  permitted  to  marry.  Or  there  could  be  an  Order 
of  married  priests,  through  which  the  Church  would 
stand  to  gain  immensely,  for  she  would  secure  a  band 


ECCLESIASTICS,  EVE,  LITERATURE    91 

of  consecrated  workers,  of  high  ideals  and  broad 
sympathies,  who  are  now  scared  away  by  celibacy. 
In  the  Greek  Church,  which  is  older  than  our  own, 
the  priests  can  marry  once.  In  our  Chui'ch  the  en- 
forcement of  clerical  celibacy  was  very  gradual,  and 
was  strongly  opposed  for  centuries."  This,  with  the 
rest  of  the  discussion,  was  keenly  resented ;  the 
clergymen  said  that  it  was  no  layman's  business  any- 
way. Some  lay  readers  declared  that  personally  they 
strongly  objected  to  the  marriage  of  priests,  but  not 
for  the  reasons  that  influenced  Hildebrand.  They 
said  that  the  wives  of  P.P.'s  and  cui'ates  interfering 
in  their  parochial  and  personal  affairs  would  render 
life  intolerable. 

A  very  difi"erent  philosophy  to  that  of  the  ex-student 
of  Maynooth  was  expressed  by  a  young  priest  who 
figured  prominently  in  the  contemporary  novel  in 
Irish,  also  more  or  less  a  roman  a  clef,  which  ran 
serially  a  little  later  in  the  Irish  Nation.  It  removed 
some  of  the  soreness  caused  by  the  revolted  student's 
declaration.  The  heroine  of  the  story  had  tried  to 
impress  on  the  hero  that  marriage,  at  any  rate  early 
marriage,  between  people  who  had  great  and  engross- 
ing work  to  do,  one  intellectual  the  other  social — 
in  nether  Dublin — would  be  a  selfish  betrayal  of  their 
higher  nature,  that  such  unions  were  the  perennial 
Fall  and  banishment  from  Eden.  When  Kevin,  the 
unconvinced  young  man,  told  this  and  more  in  kind 
to  his  intimate  friend,  the  Father  Muiris  (or  Maurice) 
of  the  tale,  the  latter  thought  that  Una  could  not  be 
very  easily  answered.  Love,  according  to  sages  who 
had  studied  its  earthly  and  more  transcendental 
stages  might  be  corporal  or  carnal,  or  psychic,  or 


92       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

spiritual.  The  first,  of  course,  was  almost  altogether 
animalistic  ;  the  second  was  well  enough,  beautiful 
in  its  own  way  often.  He  thought  that  the  third 
kind,  an  entirely  spiritual  love,  seldom  existed  be- 
tween man  and  woman ;  at  the  best  it  was  rather  a 
mixture  of  the  psychic  and  the  spiritual.  Where 
the  love  was  really  spiritual  there  was  no  desire  for 
marriage.  If,  however,  in  such  a  case  it  changed  to 
the  psychic,  and  the  persons  married,  there  was  a 
fall  from  the  higher  state  and  nature  beyond  doubt. 
Kevin,  however,  could  not  quite  believe  this.  Father 
Muiris  proceeded  to  speak  of  Erigena's  theory  of  the 
original  spiritual  body,  its  loss  through  "  sin,"  the 
coming  of  the  animal  nature  and  sex  differentiation. 
But  Kevin  had  brooded  over  Eastern  intuitions  and 
philosophies,  and  had  a  different  understanding  of 
mundane  beginnings  or  manifestations.  He  thought 
Erigena's  explanation  great  in  its  way,  but  incom- 
plete ;  also  that  he  was  far  too  hard  on  woman,  who 
was  more  spiritual  than  man.  As  to  this  the  young 
priest  took  no  side.  He  was  liberal,  and  eagerly  fol- 
lowed philosophers  when  they  dealt  with  deep  and 
subtle  questions,  but  he  was  doubtful  about  the 
finality  of  most  explanations. 

The  priest  who  has  by  far  the  most  commanding 
place  in  the  Irish  popular  imagination  is  Canon  Peter 
O'Leary,  of  Castlelyons,  Co.  Cork,  and  his  philosophy 
of  woman  in  life,  and  his  view  of  woman  as  she  is 
often  reflected  in  literature,  are  somewhat  naive  and 
peculiar.  Canon  O'Leary  suggests  a  man  who  came 
-out  of  an  old  saga,  but  after  sixty  years  or  more  of 
rural  Munster  experience,  has  grown  homely  and  racy 
without  losing  anything  of  the  saga  spirit,  while  at 


ECCLESIASTICS,  EVE,  LITERATURE    93 

the  same  time  he  has  acquh'ed  a  veneer  of  conserva- 
tive Irish  ecclesiasticism.  He  does  not  seem  at  all 
the  same  individuality  when  he  speaks  or  writes  as 
the  old  hero,  the  fireside  philosopher  or  story-teller, 
and  the  defender  or  revealer  of  clerical  interests  or 
preferences.  He  does  all  these  things  with  great 
energy  just  as  the  spirit  moves  him.  He  is  the  most 
popular  of  our  home  authors,  and  appeals  to  foreign 
students  just  as  much  as  to  our  own ;  thus  Zimmer 
considered  him  to  be  the  raciest  and  most  idiomatic 
writer  of  modern  Irish.  He  was  born  sixty-six  years 
ago,  when  there  was  still  a  great  deal  of  culture  in 
rural  Munster ;  Irish,  English,  and  Latin  were  known 
in  his  native  parish — schoolmasters  of  the  older  style 
were  often  keen  Latinists.  During  his  whole  career 
as  a  priest,  Father  Peter  (or  "  An  t  Athair  Peadar  "),  as 
he  is  familiarly  called,  has  worked  hard  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  people.  At  one  time  he  conducted  a 
classical  school,  and  in  other  parishes  he  established 
night  schools  and  reading-rooms,  and  attended  to 
them  regularly  himself.  He  believes,  however,  that 
only  at  the  starting  of  the  Gaelic  League  did  he 
really  begin  to  live  in  the  worthy  sense.  He  liked 
it  because  it  was  democratic,  and  he  is  a  literary 
democrat.  A  ploughman  reading  Ceol  Sidhe  at  the 
back  of  a  fence  during  the  midday  break  is  more 
interesting  to  him  than  any  savant  or  litterateur. 
Personally  he  is  one  of  the  cheeriest,  brightest,  and 
most  humorous  of  men,  while  there  are  surprises  and 
homely  turns  in  his  humour.  An  old  woman  once 
asked  him  the  business  of  the  bishop  and  clergy  at 
diocesan  conferences.  "  Ag  imirt  chartai  "  (playing 
cards)  was  the  quick  answer.     He  admired  a  certain 


94       THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

editor  whom  others  did  not  wholly  trust,  even  apart 
from  his  pro-clerical  leanings.  The  editor  once 
advocated  views  which  were  inconsistent  with  his 
professed  principles.  The  critics  were  not  slow  to 
point  out  the  lapse  to  his  admirer.  "  If  you  have  a 
good  dog,"  said  Father  Peter,  "  he  will  give  yourself 
an  occasional  bite  if  you're  not  careful." 

Style  was  born  and  grew  with  him ;  in  speaking 
or  writing  in  Irish  he  is  distinctly  and  easily  a  stylist. 
The  subject  may  be  quite  homely,  but  the  language 
is  delightfully  fresh,  direct,  and  expressive.  In  the 
last  fifteen  years  he  has  published  Irish  go  leor 
through  the  Gaelic  League,  the  Irish  Book  Company, 
the  Leader,  the  Cork  Weekly  Examiner,  &c.,  but 
though  we  may  sometimes  question  the  history, 
dislike  the  philosophy,  or  consider  the  theology  hard 
or  conventional  (as  in  some  of  his  sermons),  the 
force  and  freshness  of  the  style  are  unfailing.  His 
peculiar  historical  sense,  as  shown  in  his  novel, 
JSiamh,  and  some  of  his  theories  about  "scepticism," 
are  considered  elsewhere  {Clerics  as  Creators  of 
Folk-Lore).  Here  it  is  to  be  noted  that  vivid  as 
the  story  is  in  most  respects  there  is  no  real  un- 
folding of  the  personality  of  either  of  the  main 
women  characters.  One  is  pictured  in  a  bold,  broad 
way  as  very  bad,  while  the  other  is  general  per- 
fection under  a  halo.  In  fact,  we  have  the  con- 
ventional clerical  view  of  two  types  of  women ;  one 
is  going  to  the  Devil,  and  the  other  goes  into  a 
convent.  Of  the  subtleties  or  sanctities  of  either 
nature  there  is  little  understanding  or  revelation. 
Womanhood  in  An  t  Athair  Peadar's  more  popular 
story,    Seadna,    is     certainly    more    individualised. 


ECCLESIASTICS,  EVE,  LITERATURE    95 

Here  the  author  is  writing  of  Irish  life  as  he  saw 
it,  and  of  realms  into  which  old  folk  and  story- 
tellers looked,  in  his  early  impressionable  years  in 
his  native  parish.  In  structure  and  otherwise  Seadna 
is  a  curious  production,  but  it  has  something  of  a 
whole  countryside  civilisation.  The  story  is  unfolded 
night  after  night  by  a  woman  at  a  country  fireside, 
and  there  are  occasional  interruptions  and  comments 
by  her  audience.  It  was  begun  in  a  spirit  of  revolt 
against  Anglo-Irish  fiction— not  the  faithful  and 
penetrative  work  of  writers  like  Miss  Barlow  and 
Mr.  Shan  Bullock,  but  earlier  varieties,  which  critics 
and  others  had  begun  to  believe  were  even  as  Irish 
life.  The  central  interest  is  curiously  real  and  unreal 
in  turn.  It  is  in  essence  a  folk-theme,  turning  on 
an  uncanny  bargain  with  the  Devil,  and  leading  to 
prolonged  mental  and  spiritual  crisis.  Along  with 
this  there  is  a  certain  wealth  of  country  character, 
often  gi-aphically  sketched,  with  a  world  of  humour, 
oddity,  and  irony.  We  have,  as  it  were,  the  clear- 
ness, raciness,  and  humanity  of  country  life  and 
natural  town  life  in  some  great  valley,  encompassed 
by  shadowy  and  uncanny  hills,  into  which  and 
beyond  which  the  hero  drifts  on  occasion.  We  have 
racy  actuality  and  folk  imagination,  with  something 
oddly  manufactured  not  imagined.  Between  the 
life  and  character  the  book  reveals,  in  its  realistic 
parts,  and  the  Ireland  suggested  by  daily  papers  and 
many  political  speeches,  there  is  about  as  much 
connection  as  there  is  between  Atlantis  and  the 
Houses  of  Parliament  at  Westminster. 

With    his    stories,    dialogues,    modernisations    of 
mediaeval  Irish  tales,  and  other  things,  Father  Peter 


96       THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

is  quite  a  literatiu-e  to  a  large  democmcy.  Thousands 
of  people  who  do  not  or  cannot  actually  read  him 
themselves  listen  delightedly  while  younger  folk  give 
them  the  benefit  of  his  narrative  or  his  shrewd 
philosophy.  He  is  the  favourite  fireside  author. 
We  used  to  have  a  great  story-telling  and  story- 
loving  democracy  in  the  south  and  west,  and  much 
of  the  north  ;  in  later  years  there  has  come  a  change  : 
we  have  a  mingled  reading  and  listening  democracy 
(to  which  several  other  writers,  like  J.  J.  Doyle, 
"An  Seabhac."  &c,,  also  make  appeal).  In  his 
work  for  this  natural  rural  realm,  particulaiiy  in  the 
south — work  which,  of  course,  also  reaches  school 
aud  college  and  other  students — Father  Peter  is 
unique,  an  enlivening  figure  and  force  to  contem- 
plate. When  he  bursts  into  controversy,  especially 
in  English,  he  is  seldom  felicitous,  least  of  all  when 
he  tries  to  uphold  a  clerical  tradition  or  pretension. 
One  of  his  greatest  literary  raids  in  the  last  few 
years  was  that  in  1908  against  aU  English  fiction 
without  exception.  He  asked,  "  Is  the  English 
Language  Poisonous  ?  "  and  decided  in  the  affirmative 
— which  must  have  been  bad  news  for  our  bishops 
— English  fiction  had  absolutely  poisoned  it.  He 
recalled  a  country-  boy's  description  of  what  the 
youth  called  a  "navvil":  a  boy  and  a  girl  to  fall 
in  love  with  each  other  and  somebody  to  make 
mischief  between  them.  Aud  then  in  the  innocence 
of  his  troubled  heait  he  unloaded  much  like  this 
upon  an  alarmed  people  : — 

*•  Look  over  the  whole  range  of  English  fiction. 
What  is  it  aU  but  that  countiy  boy's  '  nawil '  ?  No 
chan2:e.     No  new  thous^ht.     Not  a  sinorle  new  idea. 


ECCLESIASTICS,  EVE,  LITERATURE    97 

All  the  talk  we  hear  about  '  plot '  and  '  art '  and 
'originality' — save  the  mark! — is  only  talk  about 
some  new  jingle  i-ung  on  the  ver^'  same  three  strings  ! 
In  order  to  ring  those  new  jingles,  all  the  lowest 
and  most  degradieg  phases  of  the  lowest  and  most 
degrading  of  human  passions  are  searched  for  and 
exhibited  to  the  mind  of  the  reader.  Then,  and 
here  is  the  point  that  answers  the  above  question  : 
the  most  polished  refinement  of  diction  is  used  for 
the  purpose  of  covering  but  not  hiding  the  vilest 
matter.  That  refined  diction  is  poisonous  language. 
It  is  rotten  language,  as  rotten  as  anything  which  is 
corrupt.  It  is  unwholesome.  It  ruins  the  mental 
health  of  those  who  read  those  English  '  navvils,' 
just  as  rotten  food  would  ruin  their  bodily  health." 

I  made  the  obvious  remark  at  the  time  that 
Father  Peter's  English  reading  must  have  been 
peculiarly  unfortunate,  for  his  "judgment"  of 
Enghsh  fiction,  whether  we  took  the  old  or  the  new 
writers,  was  preposterous.  True,  a  good  deal  of 
stuff  we  would  not  take  as  a  gift  in  London  was 
thrust  under  our  eyes  at  the  bookstalls  in  Ireland 
and  solemnly  reviewed  in  the  Freeman  s  Journal, 
but  Canon  O'Leaiy,  our  Irish  literary  lawgiver,  ought 
to  have  been  more  careful  in  his  preferences. 

The  ensuing  discussion  was  lively  and  profitable. 
As  in  others  of  its  kind  we  had  that  sharp  clash  and 
candid  expression  of  opinion  from  which  those  whose 
minds  were  capable  of  moving  were  brought  to  a 
clearer  understanding  not  only  of  the  issue  and 
things  bound  up  with  it  but  also  of  themselves. 
Such  intellectual  combats  also  did  something  to 
clear  away  a  share  of  those  merely  misty  or  moon- 

G 


98       THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

shiny  notions,  "  spooks "  or  wraith-like  semblances 
of  opinions,  that  had  been  passing  for  truths  in 
hundreds  of  Irish  minds  for  a  long  time.  We  had  a 
little  legion  of  people  still  who  dwelt  in  a  very  cloudy 
cloudland  between  an  idealised  Ireland  and  a  phan- 
tom England.  More  and  more  of  them  came  to 
learn  a  little  of  Irish  and  English  reality,  objective 
and  subjective.  In  the  rotten-novel-and-poisoned- 
language  discussion  the  speech  was  very  frank 
indeed.  It  was  admitted,  of  course,  that  a  good  deal 
of  the  fiction  which  came  from  England  was  trash, 
and  clerics  were  ironically  reprimanded  for  (on  their 
own  showing)  their  liberal  acquaintance  with  it.  But 
there  was  other  fiction,  and  their  criticism  of  it  was 
really  that  criticism  of  human  nature  to  which  they 
were  ever  prone.  They  wanted  to  take  the  life- 
blood  out  of  literature,  to  destroy  its  value  as  a 
record  of  human  experience  and  spiritual  biography. 
Whatever  it  might  do  in  the  future  literature  in  the 
past  had  dealt  with  the  deeps  as  well  as  the  heights, 
the  passions  as  well  as  the  ecstasies  of  humanity; 
and  the  artist  was  to  be  judged  by  his  spirit  and  his 
art  rather  than  by  his  subject.  Others  were  told 
that  all  ''arguments"  for  the  cultivation  of  Irish 
based  on  the  alleged  corruption  of  English  literature 
should  be  addressed  only  to  half-witted  audiences. 
When  one  disputant,  reasonable  in  other  things  as 
he  was  ardent,  asked  the  question,  "  Is  then  the  im- 
pression true  that  for  the  bulk  of  the  English  people, 
or  English  authors,  there  is  no  God — no  living, 
present  belief  in  the  Deity  ? "  it  was  answered  that 
the  "  impression  "  might  be  described  as  silly.  And 
it  was  asked  in  turn  if  there  was  always  a  living 


ECCLESIASTICS,  EVE,  LITERATURE    99 

belief  in  the  Deity  throughout  Ireland ;  for  if  there 
was,  our  drink-bill,  our  slums,  our  snobbery,  our 
back-biting,  our  indifference  to  the  burdens  of  the 
workers,  our  unkindness  to  children,  our  bargaining 
over  prospective  wives  in  the  spirit  of  cattle  dealers, 
our  litigation,  our  love  of  usury,  our  ill-treatment  of 
animals,  were  more  unaccountable  than  they  had 
seemed  before.  Of  course,  while  a  reference  to  such 
ills  and  social  sores  was  quite  fair  in  the  circum- 
stances, and  everybody  who  was  not  wilfully  blind 
saw  the  point,  there  was  no  suggestion  that  such 
things  were  typical  or  general.  It  was  a  reminder 
of  the  fact  that  we  had  much  to  do  before  we  could 
be  called  perfect.  Were  we  as  perfect  as  the  clergy 
pretended  in  show-sermons,  or  suggested  in  such 
discussions  as  that  initiated  by  Father  Peter,  we 
would  be  wasted  "  down  here."  We  would  be 
needed  as  archangels  on  higher  planes  of  the 
cosmos. 

Father  Peter,  as  invariably  happened  when  people 
stood  up  to  him  boldly,  rubbed  his  hands  gleefully, 
jested  with  his  nearest  neighbours,  and  coolly  retired 
to  his  study  to  write  racy  Irish  dialogues  on  serene 
subjects  of  which  he  was  master.  So  we  gained  by 
talking  straight  to  him.  And  we  wound  up  the 
discussion  with  as  much  charity  and  philosophy  as  we 
could,  pointing  out  to  perturbed  clerics  and  battle- 
thirsty  laics  that  Ireland  was  once  very  human  ;  that 
she  saw  life  steadily  and  saw  it  whole,  though  not 
always  as  deeply  as  she  might ;  that  then  incidentally 
she  created  literature  :  witness  her  great  sagas ;  that 
we  were  all  working  in  the  faith  that  she  would  be 
human  and  herself  again,  that  she  would  exercise 


100      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

her  capacities  and  grow  strong  in  her  love  of  life, 
her  enthusiasm  for  the  Here  and  the  Hereafter.  In 
that  stage  art  and  literature  worth  talking  about  were 
sure  to  come.  But  the  life  and  the  vision  must 
come  first.  Meanwhile  all  her  well-meaning  children 
and  servants  might  help  her  destiny  by  trying  to  see 
realities ;  fools'  paradises  were  almost  as  bad  for 
nations  as  pessimists'  infernos. 

But  the  conservative  clerics  and  their  friends  are 
slow  to  recognise  realities.  They  talk  on  occasion  as 
strongly  as  Canon  O'Leary  in  his  controversies,  but 
unlike  him  they  do  nothing  serious  for  reform  and 
progress  in  Irish  education  and  the  natural  develop- 
ment and  cultivation  of  the  Irish  mind.  Yet  they 
are  astonished  if  neglected  or  suppressed  mind  grows 
weedy  and  frivolous,  or  vicious  in  its  quasi-literary 
preferences.  Periodically  they  become  alarmed  over 
the  reading-matter  of  large  sections  of  the  people. 
For  some  years  sermons  and  the  little  pietistic  pro- 
ductions of  the  Irish  Catholic  Truth  Society  were 
expected  to  prevail  against  it.  Of  course  the  hope 
was  vain.  The  next  "  remedy  "  was  wilder.  In  1911 
''Vigilance  Committees"  were  established  in  several 
cities,  at  first  ostensibly  to  deal  with  English  Sunday 
newspapers,  but  it  soon  became  evident  from  the 
declarations  of  certain  bishops  and  other  ecclesiastics 
that  there  was  a  desire  to  bar  "  Socialistic "  and 
general  publications  unwelcome  to  the  powers  that 
be.  It  was  quickly  recognised  by  thoughtful  Irish 
observers  that  this  outburst  of  "  Vigilance,"  crude  in 
itself,  and  in  some  degree  humiliating,  would  be 
almost  certain  to  develop,  if  leaders  and  their  friends 
had  their  way,  into  an  intolerable  intellectual  censor- 


ECCLESIASTICS,  EVE,  LITERATURE  101 

ship.  It  was  subjected  to  candid  criticism  in  An 
Claidheamh  Solids,  An  tEireamiach,  and  the  Irish 
Beview,  the  most  thoughtful  and  independent  of  our 
later  Irish  publications. 

The  tragi-comedy  of  the  Irish  conservative  clerical 
attitude  to  woman  and  literature,  and  the  efforts  to 
keep  both  in  the  way  it  is  imagined  in  episcopal 
"  palaces  "  and  priests'  houses  that  they  ought  to  go, 
are  beyond  telling.  The  censors  strive  with  a  cer- 
tain sadness  in  their  hearts,  for  they  feel  that  what- 
ever they  do  the  trouble  cannot  really  be  removed, 
only  "regulated"  in  a  haphazard  way.  Woman 
cannot  be  abolished,  and  literature,  which  finds  her 
so  dangerously  interesting,  cannot  be  suppressed. 
The  trouble  did  not  originate  in  Ireland ;  it  really 
began  with  "  Eve,"  on  whom  Irish  ecclesiastics  preach 
with  extraordinary  feeling  and  emphasis.  If  Adam 
could  have  sufficed  at  the  morning- time  of  the  mani- 
festation of  the  world  !  Had  there  been  no  Eve  and 
no  womanhood  there  would  probably  have  been  no 
trouble  with  literature ;  nothing  in  its  pages  would 
have  shocked  a  curate  or  brought  a  blush  to  the 
brow  of  the  most  sensitive  bishop.  Eve  is  the  eternal 
shadow  on  the  Irish  ecclesiastical  landscape. 


/ 


CHAPTER   VIII 
THE   BATTLE   OF   PORTARLINGTON 

The  Portarlington  struggle,  which  began  in  1905,  gave 
concern  to  the  whole  Gaelic  League,  including  a  con- 
gress in  1906,  and  continued  in  ways  for  a  couple  of 
years  afterwards,  arose  directly  from  the  fact  that  the 
local  clergy — though  friendly  to  Irish  and  students 
of  Irish  themselves — and  the  Bishop  of  Kildare  and 
Leighlin  along  with  them,  objected  to  mixed  classes, 
at  a  period,  too,  when  the  classes  were  dismissed  in 
broad  daylight.  It  was  intensified  when  two  of  the 
chief  workers  protested  in  church  on  a  certain  Sunday 
against  clerical  criticism,  or,  as  they  maintained, 
attack,  delivered  from  the  pulpit.  This  is  regarded 
in  Ireland  as  a  most  sensational  proceeding,  no 
matter  what  the  provocation  may  be.  The  Gaelic 
Leaguers  also  unanimously  expelled  from  the  branch 
the  chief  clerics  with  whom  they  were  at  issue,  the 
parish  priest  and  a  curate. 

The  two  men  who  protested,  P.  T.  MacGinley  and 
S.  B.  Roche,  were  excise  officers  who  had  been  acting 
for  some  time  in  the  district.  Earnest  Catholics,  and 
willing  to  go  as  far  as  most  men  in  the  way  of  respect 
for  the  clergy  and  deference  to  ecclesiastical  authority 
in  its  own  place,  they  had  very  clear  conceptions  of 
the  rights  of  the  laity.  P.  T.  MacGinley  was,  and  is 
still,  a  member  of  the  executive  of  the  Gaelic  League. 

102 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PORTARLINGTON  103 

Ten  years  before  he  had  helped  to  establish  the  first 
branch  of  the  League  north  of  the  Boyne — and  the 
second  in  Leland — in  the  city  of  Belfast,  which  has 
now  thirteen  branches.  He  is  not  like  anybody  else 
in  Ireland.  His  sturdy,  racy,  friendly  personality  is 
unique.  He  has  loomed  large  in  the  modern  Lish 
mind,  darkened  and  depressed  the  visions  of  bishops, 
and  made  not  a  little  history.  So  he  deserves  a  word 
to  himself. 

He  is  a  teacher,  a  fighter,  a  humorist,  a  seanchai' 
(story-teller  in  the  Lish  sense),  a  poet,  and  a  politician. 
He  can  be  as  hard  as  a  rock,  as  gentle  as  a  zephyr ; 
as  stern  as  a  soldier  in  a  battle-charge,  as  merry  as  a 
may-boy  or  a  cross-roads  dancer.  He  was  born  some 
fifty-five  years  ago  in  a  little  glen  among  the  hills  in 
the  heart  of  Tir-Chonaill  or  Donegal.  The  glen  was 
a  little  world  in  itself,  a  wholesome  naturalness  in  its 
life,  the  Gaelic  gaiety  and  traditional  culture  survived, 
nature  and  tradition  were  expressive  teachers,  though 
the  schools  and  their  teaching  were  poor  enough.  All 
that  the  little  glen  meant  to  Peadar,  all  that  he  took 
away  from  it,  may  be  left  to  the  discerning  reader's 
imagination.  At  seventeen  he  went  to  Dublin,  to  the 
Agricultural  School  at  Glasnevin,  where  he  did  not 
remain  long.  He  passed  on  to  the  French  College  at 
Blackrock,  and  eventually  entered  the  Civil  Service. 

From  his  childhood  he  had  spoken  Irish,  and  he 
had  grown  up  in  a  little  world  full  of  the  verve  and 
raciness  of  the  Gael.  But  for  a  long  time  he  had  no 
opportunity  of  acquiring  a  real  literary  knowledge  of 
the  language.  A  copy  of  Bedell's  Bible,  with  its  small 
trying  type,  was  in  his  mother's  possession — we  owe 
our  Irish  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  to  a  Pro- 


104      THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

testant  bishop   (Bedell)  and  that  of  the  New  to  a 
Protestant  archbishop  (Daniel   or  O'Domhnaill)  ^ — 
and  through  this  he  made  an  effort,  naturally  not 
quite  a  success,  to  learn  to  read  Irish.    When  he  got 
hold  of  the  little  books  published  by  the  "  Society  for 
the  Preservation  of  the  Irish  Language,"  his  course 
was  easy  enough.     He  was  then  in  Yorkshire.     In 
1883  he  was  back  in  Ireland — in  Letterkenny — and 
there  he  edited  and  published  the  Donegal  Annual, 
which  contained  a  share  of  Irish.     Since  the  early 
nineties,  when  he  was  attracted  to  the  Gaelic  League, 
he  has  lived  and  worked  in  various  quarters — in  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Ireland,  but  mainly  Belfast  for 
the  past   few  years.     The   Oireachtas   competitions 
brought  out  his  literary  talent,  and  he  secured  several 
prizes.     He  applied  the  Gouin  system  to  Irish  teach- 
ing, but  the  Berlitz  became  more  popular.     He  pub- 
lished some  short  Irish  plays,  rather  racy  in  their 
character  and  flavour,  and  a  more  ambitious  one  of 
historical  setting  and  trend,  Ta  na  Franncaigh  ar  an 
Muir  ("  The  French  are  on  the  Sea  ").     He  is  known 
to  all  Irish  readers  as  "  Cu  Uladh"  (The  Hound  of 
Ulster,  from  the  Red  Branch  saga).     His  Irish  has 
the  directness,  incisiveness,  and  flavour  of  his  individu- 
ality  and    speech.     Its   northern    hlas,    and   certain 
idioms  and  phrases  which  before  the  large  latter-day 
output  of  Irish  printed  books  had  become  peculiar  to 
Ulster  and  almost  unknown  outside  it,  give  it  a  plea- 
sant  spice   and  piquancy  for  southern  and  western 
readers.     For  the  Peasant  and  Irish  Nation  he  wrote 

^  However,  Archbishop  MacHale,  one  of  the  few  great  Irish-minded 
Catholic  prelates  of  the  nineteenth  century,  rendered  the  Pentateuch  into 
Irish,  and  Canon  G'Leary  and  Father  Dinneen  have  given  us  certain 
Biblical  matter  in  Irish  in  recent  years. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PORTARLINGTON   105 

scores  of  signed  leaders  and  other  articles  on  politics, 
books,  clerics,  festivals,  schools,  industries — he  has 
been  an  Irish  industrial  advocate  for  nearly  forty 
years — and  indeed  anything  and  everything  of  public 
interest.  Sometimes  our  clerical  and  political  worthies 
realise  themselves  in  ways  that  recall  the  saying  of 
Laotse  about  beating  a  drum  while  searching  for  a 
strayed  sheep.  MacGinley  beats  no  drum,  but  he 
gets  the  sheep  every  time. 

Through  all  the  Portarlington  furore — while  there 
was  comment  of  one  kind  or  another  far  and  wide, 
a  great  deal  of  passion  was  stirred  locally — he  re- 
mained cool  and  determined.  Ostensibly,  as  shown 
already,  the  trouble  between  the  Gaelic  Leaguers  and 
the  clergy  arose  over  the  question  of  mixed  classes. 
Then  came  a  charge,  or  something  strangely  like  it, 
from  the  pulpit,  one  which  was  hotly  resented.  It 
was  suggested  by  the  P.P.  that  the  lady  members 
of  the  League  went  to  the  classes  for  purposes  other 
than  Gaelic,  that  probably  if  the  town  were  lighted 
they  would  not  want  to  go  there  at  all.  According 
to  several  witnesses  this  was  the  purport  of  the  ,/ 
words,  though  there  was  some  difference  in  points 
of  detail.  The  expulsion  of  the  parish  priest  from 
the  League  branch  followed  quickly  on  this.  The 
next  step  was  a  condemnation  of  the  Leaguers,  by 
the  curate,  also  from  the  pulpit,  because  of  the  ex- 
pulsion. There  and  then  Messrs.  MacGinley  and 
Roche  emphatically  but  briefly  protested,  and  the 
curate  was  subsequently  expelled  from  the  League. 
Eventually  after  some  correspondence  between  Mr. 
Roche  and  himself.  Dr.  Foley,  the  Bishop  of  Kildare 
and  Leighlin,  held  an  inquiry,  after  which  he  severely 


106      THE   POPE'S   GREEX   ISLAND 

commented  on  the  protest  in  the  church  and  refeiTed 
very  mildly  to  the  provocation  that  led  to  it.  He 
also  treated  rather  lightly  the  charge  or  suggestion 
that  had  brought  the  trouble  to  a  head,  declaring 
that  the  P.P.  could  not  mean  what  the  Leaguers 
assumed  he  meant,  but  suggesting  that  it  would  have 
been  better  had  he  omitted  the  clause  in  question. 
His  judgment  in  fact  was  exceedingly  disappointing. 
It  left  the  feeling  that  in  his  lordship's  view  the  lay- 
man had  little  right  or  standing  in  the  Church  at 
all.  The  serious  issues  were  ignored ;  on  the  vexed 
question  of  the  treatment  of  worldly  controversies 
from  altar  or  pulpit  not  a  word  was  said.  Dr.  Foley 
took  the  time-honoured  episcopal  view  of  the  moral 
danger  of  mixed  classes,  which  most  of  us  maintained 
were,  under  normal  Irish  conditions,  perfectly  natural 
and  healthy,  indeed  we  deemed  the  association  of 
the  young  people  to  be  gi'acious  and  refining,  and 
sincerely  pitied  the  imagination  that  saw  danger 
therein. 

The  war  in  Portarlington  itself  was  long  and 
devious.  The  clergy  took  the  platform  of  the  local 
United  Irish  League  and  relieved  their  feelings  on 
the  subject  of  the  stiu'dy  Gaels,  one  of  their  designa- 
tions for  MacGinley  being  that  of  "  lay  Pope."  The 
story  of  all  the  moves  were  long  to  tell.  In  spite 
of  stress  and  storm,  however,  the  Gaels  went  on  per- 
sistently with  their  branch  and  their  serious  work, 
they  had  hberal  space  for  report  and  reply  every 
week  in  the  Irish  Peasant,  while  prominent  workers 
from  other  parts  of  Ireland  went  down  and  helped 
them  with  lectui'es.  Friends  of  the  clergy  started 
a  rival  branch  of  the  Gaelic  League  in  Bishopswood, 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PORTARLINGTON    107 

a  townland  of  the  parish,  and  elected  the  P.P.  as 
President,  but  the  executive  in  Dublin  refused  to 
affiliate  it.  The  next  move  was  the  organisation  of 
what  they  called  a  Feis,  or  public  Gaelic  League 
festival,  an  obvious  effort  to  interfere  with  the  real 
Feis  of  MacGinley  and  his  friends.  A  Feis  is  the 
crown  and  public  celebration  of  a  session's  serious 
work,  and  incidentally  it  means  the  acquisition  of 
funds  for  further  work.  Then,  at  the  stage  when 
branches  everywhere  began  to  prepare  for  the  annual 
congress  of  the  whole  Gaelic  League,  and  Port- 
arlington  loomed  large  in  all  minds,  there  came  a 
significant  development.  The  Irish  Peasant  and 
Sinn  Fein  got  hold  of  copies  of  a  long,  printed 
cu'cular  letter  which  Father  O'Leary,  the  P.P.  of 
Portarlington,  had  addressed  to  brother  priests.  He 
gave  his  o^vn  story  and  view  of  the  famous  quarrel, 
and  went  on  to  say  that  the  executive  of  the  Gaehc 
League  (which  that  year  by  the  way,  included  ten 
priests)  was  in  obvious  sympathy  with  the  opponents 
of  "  the  bishop  and  myself,"  as  shown  by  its  action 
in  refusing  to  recognise  the  Bishopswood  branch  and 
other  things.     And  then  : — 

"  The  question  now  arises,  '  Is  the  executive  re- 
presentative of  the  Gaelic  League  of  the  country?' 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  it  is  not ;  and  this  brings 
me  to  the  motive  underlying  this  letter.  The  bishops 
and  priests  of  the  country  have  made  the  Gaelic 
League  the  great  power  it  is  now  universally  acknow- 
ledged to  be  in  the  land.  The  present  executive  has 
shown  by  its  toleration  of,  and  sympathy  with,  the 
Rory  O'More  [Portarlington]  branch,  and  its  refusal 
to  affiliate  the  other  branch  formed  in  this  parish, 


108      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

that  it  has  decided  anti-clerical  proclivities.  I  am 
aware  that  it  counts  priests  amongst  its  members, 
but  they  are  in  a  small  minority,  and  appear  to  have 
little  influence  on  the  actions  or  decisions  of  the 
executive.  The  remedy  for  this  unfortunate  state  of 
afi'airs  is  to  have  the  objectionable  elements  removed 
from  the  executive,  or  rendered  harmless ;  and  a 
number  of  good  Cathohc  laymen,  with  a  fair  repre- 
sentation of  the  priests,  placed  on  the  Executive 
Committee.  The  priests  have  it  quite  in  their  power 
to  effect  this. 

*'  Early  in  August  next,  when  the  Ard  -  Fheis 
assembles,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  League  all  over 
the  country  will  have  an  opportunity  of  calling  the 
present  executive  to  account  for  its  actions  and  of 
electing  another.  I  would  appeal  to  you  to  use  your 
influence  with  the  branch  or  branches  of  the  League 
in  your  parish  to  ensure  not  only  the  election  of  a 
proper  and  reliable  delegate  to  the  Ard-Fheis,  but 
also  his  or  their  attendance  at  its  meetings.  The 
Ard-Fheis  this  year  (1906)  will  open  on  the  6th  of 
August.  I  append  for  your  information  the  rules 
regulating  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  Ard-Fheis, 
the  conditions  on  which  branches  are  entitled  to  re- 
presentation, &c. — rules  taken  from  the  constitution 
of  the  League.  I  am  sure  you  sympathise  with  my 
desire  to  see  the  government  of  the  Gaelic  League — 
an  organisation  to  which  so  many  of  our  people  look 
with  abounding  hope — in  the  hands  of  those  whose 
respect  for  faith  and  morality  cannot  be  called  in 
question." 

Much  in  this  communication  was  a  neat  though 
unusually   unimpassioned    expression    of    the    older 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PORTARLINGTON    109 

clerical  attitude.  "Faith  and  morality"  and  right 
were  at  stake,  and  their  gentle  clerical  defenders 
showed  how  the  bold,  bad  lay  foemen  could  be  put 
in  their  places — of  course  for  their  own  good  and 
that  of  the  Gaelic  League.  The  declaration  that  "  the 
bishops  and  priests  of  the  country  have  made  the 
Gaelic  League  the  great  power  it  is  now  universally 
acknowledged  to  be  in  the  land  "  was  delightful.  Of 
course,  a  proportion  of  the  priests,  especially  young 
priests,  had  worked  well,  and  a  few  bishops  had 
blessed  the  League  in  a  quiet  way,  but  the  lay  workers 
were  in  an  overwhelming  majority.  Yet  in  Father 
O'Leary's  view  they  were  nowhere.  Why,  if  the 
ecclesiastics  had  done  everything,  they  had  not  secured 
more  than  a  small  and  uninfluential  minority  on  the 
executive,  his  reverence  did  not  explain.  In  point 
of  fact  the  clerics,  as  such,  had  usually  more  than  a 
fair  share  of  representation  amongst  the  delegates 
who  annually  elected  the  executive.  In  country 
places  and  some  towns  it  sometimes  happened  that 
while  a  branch  might  contain  only  one  or  two  clerics 
to  dozens  or  scores  of  lay  members  only  the  cleric  or 
clerics  could  find  it  convenient  to  spend  some  days  in 
Dublin  in  the  month  of  August.  Or  often  a  young 
cleric  might  be  the  best  Irish  speaker,  or  otherwise 
the  most  suitable  delegate.  So  far  lay  and  clerical 
delegates,  judging  by  results,  had  chosen  in  the  ballot, 
from  amongst  the  great  number  of  priests  and  laymen 
annually  proposed,  those  whose  record  and  qualifica- 
tions as  Gaelic  Leaguers  were  most  marked.  If  out 
of  the  nearly  fifty  members — ofiicers,  residents  (in  or 
within  twenty  miles  of  Dublin),  and  non-residents 
(beyond  the  twenty-mile  limit) — who  composed  the 


110      THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

executive,  which  met  monthly,  they  chose  some  forty 
laymen,  including  a  Protestant  president,  and  ten 
priests  in  a  given  year,  it  was  for  Irish  not  anti-clerical 
or  clerical  reasons.  The  ten  priests  differed  greatly, 
but  were  at  one  in  their  Irish  predilections.  They 
included  Father  O'Leary's  namesake,  now  a  Canon, 
the  popular  author  of  Siadna,  &c. ;  Father  Dinneen, 
a  prolific  Irish  author,  fearful,  as  we  shall  see,  on  the 
subject  of  liberal  Catholicism ;  Father  O'Connolly, 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  broad-minded  of  the 
young  priests ;  Father  Brennan,  a  strenuous  young 
sagart,  who  wrote  of  Beranger  in  Irish,  translating 
several  of  his  songs  into  the  language ;  Father  Matt 
Ryan,  who  had  learned  Irish  at  sixty,  and  wrought 
something  like  a  revolution  in  his  neighbourhood. 
And  so  on. 

But  at  this  stage  many  feared  that  the  situation 
had  changed.  The  passion  aroused  through  the 
Portarlington  struggle  was  great,  and  clerics  far  and 
wide,  of  course  believing  that  the  Devil  had  gi'own 
rampant  in  the  land,  had  done  much  in  their  excite- 
ment to  confuse  the  issue.  Father  O'Leary  now 
stood  forth,  in  the  imagination  of  those  who  thought 
with  him,  as  a  mighty  type  of  the  faithful  defender  of 
Church  and  morality,  MacGinley  and  his  friends  as 
godless  men  who  carried  passion  and  anti-clericalism 
even  into  a  sacred  edifice  and  defied  priests  on  the 
altar.  Even  a  cultured  and  earnest  soul  like  Father 
Dinneen,  as  I  learned  from  Maynooth  and  other- 
wise, was  woeful  at  the  thought  of  coming  terrors  in 
the  way  of  intellectual  and  other  revolt.  What  eff'ect 
would  it  all  have  on  minds  in  scattered  small  towns 
and  quiet  country  places  ?     The  Gaelic  League  had 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PORT  ARLINGTON    111 

done  healthful,  gracious  work,  and  spread  a  share  of 
thought,  but  it  was  young  still,  and  its  Catholic 
majority  contained  a  large  proportion  of  simple, 
honest  spirits  who  might  easily  be  confused  where 
theological  issues  were  intruded.  And  Irish  or  any 
other  clericalism  fighting  for  its  own  hand  does  not 
make  just  for  sweetness  and  light. 

Anyway  we  felt  that  it  would  be  a  critical  if  not  a 
sensational  Ard-Fheis.  We  had  heard  of  a  country- 
man who  once  on  a  time  went  in  search  of  "  a  good 
Catholic  life  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte."  The  old  order 
of  clerics  wanted  "  a  good  Catholic  Gaelic  League 
executive,"  and  in  order  to  get  it  would  "  rig  "  the 
Ard-Fheis  if  they  could,  calling  the  dehcate  business, 
of  course,  by  some  sound  moral  name,  and  deeming  it 
holy  and  wholesome.  We  spread  the  fact  of  the 
clerical  appeal  to  the  utmost,  and  explained  the  issue 
as  clearly  and  pointedly  as  we  could,  but  we  had  no 
illusion  as  to  the  stiffness  of  the  task  and  the  nature 
of  the  odds.  We  knew  what  "moral  suasion"  had 
meant  so  far  in  the  Ireland  some  distance  from 
Dublin. 

The  issue  was  knit.  Father  O'Leary,  the  P.P.  of 
Portarlington,  and  others  who  felt  with  him,  went 
forward  as  candidates  for  election  to  the  executive. 
So,  of  course,  did  MacGinley  and  various  other  tried 
workers  and  campaigners.  For  the  forty-five  places 
(15  residents  and  30  non-residents)  there  was  a  very 
large  number  of  nominations,  but,  significantly  enough, 
there  was  no  sign  of  opposition  to  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde 
and  his  brother  ofiicers.  Yet  Father  O'Leary  had 
been  uneasy  in  his  mind  about  the  Gaelic  League's 
Protestant  president.     A    month  earlier   Dr.    Hyde 


112      THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

had  returned  to  Ireland  after  a  strenuous  tour  in 
America.  From  Cork  to  Dublin,  from  Dublin  to  his 
western  home  he  had  been  received  everywhere  with 
ovations  which  showed  his  pride  of  place  in  the 
popular  affection  and  the  popular  imagination.  At 
Portarlington  he  spoke  a  few  courteous  words  from 
the  train  to  the  Gaelic  Leaguers.  Father  OLeary 
was  hurt  when  he  heard  of  it.  He  thought  that  Dr. 
Hyde  ought  to  have  "  corrected "  the  Leaguers  for 
the  protest  in  the  church,  and  he  told  a  meeting  of 
his  friends  in  Bishopswood  that  "  we  won't  allow  our 
religion  to  be  insulted  by  any  Douglas  Hyde."  An 
insult  to — Religion ! — and  by  the  man  who  had 
rescued  the  religious  songs  of  Connacht  from  oblivion  ! 
Some  days  later,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Catholic 
Bishop  of  Killaloe  at  the  Clare  Feis  paid  a  glowing 
tribute  to  Dr.  Hyde,  as  did  the  Bishop  of  Achonry, 
a  neighbour,  when  "  An  Craoibhin  "  reached  his  home 
in  Connacht. 

When  the  trial  week  arrived,  so  far  as  the 
Oireachtas,  the  general  festival,  and  its  features 
were  concerned,  there  was  no  sign  of  tension  or 
trouble.  At  the  great  public  rallies  in  the  Rotunda 
the  enthusiasm  was  as  buoyant  as  ever ;  pipers,  story- 
tellers, dancers,  harpers,  students,  singers,  and  others, 
in  the  day-long  competitions,  were  as  zestful  as  if  they 
had  been  set  to  music ;  amongst  the  country  and 
oversea  visitors  was  a  host  of  cheery  personalities 
that  by  this  time  had  become  as  familiar  as  the 
neighbour's  and  friends  of  youth.  I  had  perforce  to 
work  late  into  nights  in  the  Boyne  Valley  in  order 
to  be  able  to  enjoy  the  daily  luxury  of  the  Oireachtas, 
but  coming  up  to  Dublin  in  the  fresh,  sunny  morn- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PORTARLIXGTON    113 

ings  was  more  than  recompense  ;  it  was  like  passing 
straight  into  the  heroic  and  festive  Ireland  of  the 
old  tales.  But  once  the  Ard-Fheis  began,  a  couple 
of  days  after  the  opening  of  the  Oireachtas,  the 
thoughts  of  even  the  most  festive  turned  anxiously 
to  the  Congi-ess  hall.  There  was  an  imposing  rally 
of  delegates,  and  old  campaigners  of  the  League 
noticed  many  new  faces.  This  might  mean  well  or 
ill ;  distant  branches  might  have  made  special  efforts 
to  be  represented  this  time,  or  Father  O'Leary's 
friends  might  have  succeeded  in  their  efforts.  Priests 
did  not  seem  proportionately  stronger  than  at  earlier 
Ard-Fheiseanna  which  I  had  seen ;  women  delegates 
were,  I  thought,  more  numerous. 

While  there  was  a  decided  intensity  in  the  air  of  the 
Congi'ess,  business  began  and  went  on  in  the  old  way, 
but  then  the  election  and  the  really  crucial  questions 
were  far  off.  However,  the  real  spirit  of  the  assembly 
was  revealed  in  due  course  with  dramatic  suddenness. 
MacGinley  rose  to  address  the  Congress  for  the  first 
time  on  a  general  question.  From  all  parts  of  the 
hall  he  received  a  spontaneous  ovation,  extraordinary 
in  its  warmth  and  its  fervour,  sturdy  young  priests 
chiming  in  with  the  best,  and  the  ladies  excelling 
themselves.  After  a  few  minutes  the  Ard-Fheis 
settled  down  again  to  business  in  happy  humour 
with  itself.  The  branches  near  and  far  had  plainly 
sent  a  big  majority  of  men  and  women  whose  views 
were  clear  and  decided.  The  older  clericahsm  had 
wrought  and  hoped  in  vain.  But  a  more  joyous 
scene  was  to  come  on  the  later  day  when  the  chair- 
man rose  to  announce  the  results  of  the  ballot  for 
the  new  executive.     These  had  been  awaited  with 

H 


114      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

intense  interest,  the  non-resident  or  country  choice 
especially ;  there  was  less  keenness  about  the  other 
results.  When  the  chairman,  looking  on  the  list 
passed  on  to  him  by  the  scrutineers,  said  the  words 
"  Baill  na  Tuaithe "  (country  members,  or  non- 
residents), and  paused  for  a  moment,  the  stillness 
was  absolute.  Then  he  read — "  Peadar  MacFhionn- 
laoi',''  and  could  proceed  no  further  for  a  couple  of 
minutes  till  the  joyous  demonstration  aroused  by 
the  fact  that  MacGinley  had  headed  the  poll  had 
subsided.  The  fearless  fighter,  the  marked  man  of 
conservative  clericalism,  was  first  and  foremost  even 
of  the  successful !  The  further  reading  was  broken 
by  various  outbursts  of  enthusiasm  as  one  favourite 
name  or  another  was  heard.  And  the  names  that 
were  not  heard?  For  one.  Father  O'Leary,  P.P.  of 
Portarlington,  remained  in  the  ranks  of  the  non- 
elected.  Nor  was  any  avowed  friend  of  his  returned. 
The  victory  was  sheer,  decisive. 

One  of  the  successful  candidates  whose  name  was 
the  occasion  of  a  hearty  demonstration  was  "  George 
A.  Birmingham,"  the  Rev.  J.  O.  Hannay,  Protestant 
rector  of  Westport.  He  came  just  above  Monsignor 
O'Hara,  a  leading  Connacht  individuality,  who  had 
done  worthy  work  for  Irish  culture  and  Irish  in- 
dustry in  a  bleak  and  impoverished  region.  The 
Monsignor  was  understood  to  have  grown  troubled 
about  the  rise  of  "  anti-clericalism,"  and,  curiously 
enough,  he  resigned  his  position  on  the  executive 
almost  immediately.  Ten  priests  altogether,  all  of 
them  proved  and  popular  workers,  came  again  into 
office.  Another  Protestant  colleague  arrived  in  the 
person  of  Mr.  Stephen  Gwynn,  M.P.     Seven  ladies, 


THE  BATTLE  OF  PORTARLINGTON    115 

of  marked  individuality,  secured  election.  The  fact 
that  six  primary  school  teachers  were  elected  added 
to  the  sorrows  of  the  older  clerics  and  clerical 
managers. 

The  Ard-Fheis  dealt  calmly  and  firmly  with  the 
Portarlington  troubles  so  far  as  they  came  within 
its  province.  One  of  Father  O'Leary's  Kildare  friends 
had  put  down  resolutions — regarding  the  unaffiliated 
Bishopswood  branch,  &c. — the  passing  of  which 
would  be  virtually  a  vote  of  censure  on  the  out- 
going executive  and  MacGinley's  branch.  One  re- 
solution was  unanimously  rejected,  a  second  was  by 
leave  withdrawn.  Stringent  rules  designed  against 
bogus  Feiseanna  were  passed,  and  the  strictly  non- 
sectarian  character  of  the  Gaelic  League  was  em- 
phasised anew.  Every  worker  knew  already  that 
priest  and  parson,  Protestant,  Catholic,  and  Presby- 
terian, had  the  same  standing  within  it,  and  that  it 
made  quite  diverse  theologians  feel  entirely  comfort- 
able together.  The  more  work  they  did  the  more 
comfortable  they  felt.  But  some  in  high  places  did 
not  understand,  or  did  not  want,  this  democratic 
and  non-sectarian  charm. 

The  determined  stand  and  struggle  of  laymen  at 
Portarlington — the  trouble  continued  locally  for  a 
long  time — the  responsive  chords  they  struck  through- 
out Leland,  their  leader's  success,  and  the  failure  of 
their  opponents,  with  the  Gaelic  League  as  a  whole, 
showed  that  the  new  force  in  the  land  could  teach 
in  more  ways  than  one.  "Portarlington"  had 
become  symbolical  and  historic. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THEOLOGY   AND   WATERWORKS 

DuEiNG  my  editorial  term  in  my  native  land  nothing 
in  the  west,  or  the  world  for  that  matter,  was  so 
famous  in  so  strange  a  way  as  the  Claremorris  water- 
works scheme.  Much  as  I  read  of  it  in  strenuous 
days,  I  remember  nothing  about  it  now  except  its 
profound  theological  significance.  That  supreme 
fact  overshadowed  all  others,  which  is  doubtless  no 
wonder ;  ordinary  details  and  technicalities  seem 
irrelevant  and  intrusive  in  connection  with  water- 
works of  so  unique  a  distinction.  At  least  I  think 
it  must  be  unique. 

There  are  mysteries  with  which  the  seers  of  the 
ages  have  warned  us  not  to  meddle  at  our  peril. 
There  are  psychic  realms  that  we  may  make  our  own 
only  after  severe  and  subtle  training.  Even  ordinary- 
looking  bushes  and  mounds  I  was  solemnly  cautioned 
not  to  touch,  cut,  or  deface,  in  my  childhood,  because 
of  some  peculiar  connection  of  theirs  with  fairyland 
and  the  "Good  People"  or  "Gentry";  and  the 
warning  added  a  certain  mystery  and  magical  im- 
pressiveness  to  existence.  In  later  years  the  pro- 
hibitions, not  so  faithfully  remembered,  concerned 
theological  preserves,  fine  subtleties  of  ecclesiastical 
jurisprudence,  and  puzzles  of  Church  history.  But 
it  might  appear  that  the  merest  lay  mind,  the  most 

116 


THEOLOGY  AND   WATERWORKS     117 

ordinary  ratepayer  unlearned  in  the  difference  be- 
tween St.  Peter  and  Pelagins,  would  be  entirely  safe 
and  could  not  possibly  lapse  into  heresy  over  a  water- 
works scheme  and  the  question  of  the  area  of  charge. 
Alas,  for  such  easy  and  temerarious  confidence.  Walk 
he  ever  so  warily,  the  wayfarer  on  the  Irish  portion 
of  the  physical  plane  can  never  be  sure  of  avoiding 
theological  pitfalls. 

It  was  so  in  the  case  of  the  Claremorris  water- 
works scheme  and  the  vexed  question  of  the  area 
of  charge.  Mr.  Conor  O'Kelly,  M.P.,  the  county 
councillor  for  the  division,  came  to  his  own  conclu- 
sion on  the  problem,  and  it  was  not  the  conclusion  of 
Archdeacon  Kilkenny  and  his  clerical  brethren.  So 
controversy  began,  and,  as  the  people  say,  "  one  word 
borrowed  another,"  and  ere  long  the  waterworks 
seemed  small  in  comparison  with  the  words.  The 
stages  by  which  heresy  and  infidelity  developed  are 
obscure,  but  it  was  duly  declared — the  phrase  became 
famous — that  some  who  did  not  see  eye  to  eye  with 
the  ecclesiastics  over  the  waterworks  and  the  area 
were  "  hoisting  the  black  banner  of  irreligion."  And 
apparently  when  the  golden  summer  of  1908  arrived 
that  evil  banner  still  floated  in  the  breeze.  With 
the  summer  came  the  County  Council  election,  and 
straight  and  sheer  into  the  fray  against  Conor  of  the 
Banner  went  the  archdeacon  and  his  clerical  brethren, 
righteously  determined  that  Claremorris  and  hetero- 
doxy should  be  associated  no  more  in  the  County 
Council  of  Mayo.  They  found  full  soon  that  the 
host  of  Conor  was  more  formidable  than  they  had 
thought,  and  what  was  still  more  embarrassing,  as 
well  as  fearsomely  indicative  of  the  change  in  Irish 


118      THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

life,  the  Mayo  News  met  them  on  what  they  had 
imagined  to  be  their  own  ground,  boldly  declared 
to  them  that  they  were  forgetting  their  real  sphere, 
that  they  had  no  business  whatever  to  try  to  make 
the  issue  a  religious  one.  A  country  paper  teaching 
Churchmen  the  way  they  should  go  !  It  amazed 
them,  but  it  nerved  them  to  more  epic  efforts.  It 
would  need  an  expert  to  decide  whether,  in  the 
charging  and  challenging  days  that  followed,  their 
theology  or  their  oratory  was  the  more  wonderful. 
To  give  a  glimpse  of  them  in  their  battle  ardour 
I  refer  to  the  Western  People,  which  took  their  side, 
and  presumably  reported  them  fairly;  it  certainly 
reported  them  fully.  x\t  a  Claremorris  meeting  in 
support  of  Mr.  O'Kelly's  opponent,  Mr.  Killeen,  Arch- 
deacon Kilkenny  presided,  and  declared  in  the  course 
of  his  speech,  according  to  the  People,  that  "  the 
stainless  flag  of  the  Roman  gamson  still  floats  on 
the  breeze,  while  he  who  would  trample  it  in  the 
dust  is  driven  to  his  last  ditch,  and  compelled  to 
struggle  for  his  own  political  existence.  The  foot- 
prints on  the  sands  of  time  are  in  this  case  traced 
by  a  fast-receding  figure."  With  the  "  flag  of  the 
Roman  garrison  "  in  the  breeze,  and  the  "  footprints 
on  the  sands  of  time,"  both  the  picturesque  and  the 
impressive  were  represented  to  an  extent  that  is  rare 
in  County  Council  elections.  Plainly  the  archdeacon 
had  no  mean  sense  of  style  and  imaginative  magic. 
But  he  showed  a  power  of  plainer  speecli.  Later  on 
he  referred  to  scenes  at  Easter  "  stations" — seasonal 
religious  services  held  in  particular  homes  in  districts 
where  the  churches  are  inconveniently  far  from  many 
of  the  people's  dwellings.    Political  addresses  had  been 


THEOLOGY  AND   WATERAVORKS     119 

given  at  those  "  stations,"  according  to  the  Mayo  Jsews, 
and  apparently  had  been  rather  resented.  The  arch- 
deacon's conchision  was  that  "  the  friends  of  the 
Church  need  strong  arms  and  brave  hearts  in  those 
days."  And  again  :  *'  In  those  days  a  nev7  Shaun  na 
Soggarth  ("  Sean  na  Sagart,"  a  spy  on  priests  in  penal 
times)  has  arisen,  not  so  bloody  as  his  wretched  pro- 
totype, but  fully  as  vindictive,  and  adopting  even 
meaner  methods  of  spying  and  defamation  of  the 
clergymen  of  his  Church."  This  latter  reference  was 
apparently  to  the  pressman  responsible  for  the  Mayo 
iV^ei(;s' version  of  the  clerical  addresses  at  the  "stations" 
or  in  churches.  The  candidate  was  the  next  speaker ; 
the  Mayo  JVews  he  called  "  that  advocate  of  hell," 
and,  in  reference  to  IVir.  O'Kelly,  asked  what  sort  of 
respect  for  Archdeacon  Kilkenny  "  could  be  expected 
from  the  godless."  The  Very  Eev.  M.  J.  M'Hugh, 
P.P.,  Crossboyne,  said — I  follow  the  pro-clerical 
organ's  report  in  all  cases — "  we  don't  belong  to  a 
clique  of  place-hunters  or  office-traffickers,  whose 
existence  depends  upon  the  effusions  of  an  infidel 
press  and  unpurchaseable  gentlemen  of  the  corner- 
boy  type  and  character."  Also,  "  Journalism  has 
reached  its  nadir  of  infamy  and  infidelity  in  calling 
us  a  '  vendetta.' "  Theologians,  strangely  enough, 
appear  to  have  overlooked  this  aspect  of  infidelity. 
Father  Tuify,  C.C.,  urged  that  "  the  question  at  issue 
is  the  selection  between  public  decency  and  morality 
on  the  one  side  and  ruffianism,  corruption,  and  re- 
ligious rancour  on  the  other."  The  Very  Eev.  John 
Fallon,  P.P.,  asked  his  audience  were  they  prepared 
"  to  take  advice  from  that  crew  " — referring  to  those 
in  Mr.  O'Kelly's  brake    some   distance   away.     Dr. 


120      THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

T.  J.  Madden,  of  Kiltimagh,  referred  to  the  Mayo  Neivs 
as  "  a  hell-fire's  rag."  Rev.  J.  M'Evilly,  C.C,  insisted 
that  "  everything  which  we  hold  sacred  and  holy,  and 
which  makes  for  your  own  well-being,  is  at  stake." 

Here,  then,  we  had  priests  of  Claremorris  and  the 
neighbourhood  throwing  themselves  into  a  County 
Council  contest  and  giving  the  people  to  understand 
that  the  issue  was  a  religious  one.  I  have  taken  one 
Sunday  meeting,  the  report  of  which  ran  to  more 
than  eight  long  columns,  as  a  specimen  of  how  the 
campaign  was  conducted,  and  as  an  illustration  of 
how  certain  Irish  priests  even  yet  choose  to  meet  an 
opponent.  It  is  a  method  which  often  answered  its 
purpose  in  the  past,  but  its  day  is  passing.  Light  and 
thought  are  too  much  for  it.  What  happened  in 
Claremorris  ?  Despite  the  impassioned  clerical  appeal 
Mr.  Conor  O'Kelly,  on  the  4th  of  June,  was  returned 
at  the  head  of  the  poll  by  a  majority  of  fifty-two.  Cleri- 
calism in  the  wrong  place  waged  a  characteristic,  nay, 
a  record,  campaign,  and  was  beaten  by  Irish  Catholic 
voters.  The  preposterous  suggestion  that  between 
the  stability  of  the  Church  and  the  result  of  a  Con- 
nacht  County  County  election  there  could  be  any 
connection,  the  haughty  assumption  that  the  clergy 
must  rule — not  simply  co-operate — in  secular  affairs, 
were  repudiated  west  of  the  Shannon. 

Of  course  the  result,  like  all  such  results,  was 
discussed  far  and  wide.  Such  victories  sow  seeds  of 
other  victories.  They  bring  joy  to  laics,  and  not  a 
few  clerics,  of  the  new  day ;  they  tend  to  show  even 
the  strongest  ecclesiastics  of  the  old  order  that  auto- 
cracy is  growing  out  of  date  ;  they  set  even  the  timid 
thinking. 


THEOLOGY   AND   WATERWORKS     121 

But  though  the  time  is  sure  to  come  when  such 
campaigns  may  be  only  dim  and  curious  memories,  I 
imagine  that  the  waterworks  with  the  solemn  and 
startling  theological  significance  will  he  vividly 
remembered  for  generations.  Far  in  the  unveiled 
future,  when  the  objective  course  of  the  once-famous 
Fact  is  over,  it  will  still  live  on,  in  subtle,  subjective 
wise,  a  symbol  of  the  ironies  of  Irish  Church  history 
in  the  early  twentieth  century. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   FEAR   OF   LIBERAL    CATHOLICISM 

In  1908  we  had  a  curious  crisis,  which  some  thought 
would  rend  the  Gaelic  League.  The  avowed  issues, 
as  some  of  us  took  care  to  proclaim  with  all  our 
might,  were  not  the  real  ones.  Things  so  far  apart 
as  Mr.  Birrell's  University  Bill  and  liberal  Catho- 
licism played  singular  parts  in  the  fray,  and  the  chief 
leader  against  us — for  the  time — was  an  able  and 
cultured  priest  whom  we  all  esteemed  for  many 
things,  though  we  could  not  abide  certain  aspects  of 
his  clericalism  which  we  believed  did  serious,  though 
of  course  not  conscious,  damage.  The  priest  was 
Father  Dinneen,  one  of  our  foremost  Irish  writers, 
and  a  remarkable  individuality  in  every  way. 

He  is  a  man  of  brilliant  scholastic  attainments 
and  distinctions.  He  is  an  accomplished  classical 
scholar,  for  one  thing,  and  has  the  reputation, 
amongst  his  old  students,  of  being  something  of  a 
wizard  in  the  domain  of  mathematics.  He  is  learned 
in  many  lines  of  literature ;  perhaps,  indeed,  his  mind 
is  stored  with  too  much  literature,  not  all  of  it  of 
first-rate  quality.  Thus  it  has  been  said  that  if  every 
extant  edition  of  Pope's  poems  were  lost  or  burned  he 
could  re-write  them  all  from  memory.  Notable  as  is 
his  work,  though  both  his  Irish  and  his  English 
prose  is  on  occasion  somewhat  rhetorical,  it  would 
be  more  notable,  I  believe,  if  he  had  forgotten  half 
the  literatui'e  he   read    or   learned   and  given   free 


FEAR  OF  LIBERAL  CATHOLICISM    123 

expression  to  himself  and  his  philosophy  of  life  and 
intuitions.  The  general  Irish  reader  first  became 
acquainted  with  him  over  a  decade  ago,  when  he 
published  the  historical  novel,  Connac  Ua  Conaill, 
with  its  clash  and  ravage  and  tragedy.  It  is  a  story 
of  the  Desmond  wars  and  the  closing  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. It  has  much  of  what  might  be  deemed  "  sen- 
sationalism "  :  charred  villages,  burning  woods  in 
Munster,  tumultuous  character,  blood-thirstiness;  but 
it  is  sensation  characteristic  of  the  tragic  and  sorely- 
tried  Ireland  of  the  time,  and  a  sense  of  ardour  and 
heroism  runs  through  it.  It  is  lit  by  the  idealism  of 
the  youthful  hero,  and  it  possesses  an  appealing 
flavour  of  adventure,  though  there  is  a  certain 
naivete,  with  occasional  crudity.  At  one  stage  the 
author  dwells  glowingly  on  Gill  Airne  (Killarney)  to 
whose  beauty  and  whose  Irish  associations  he  was 
afterwards  to  devote  a  volume. 

Turning  from  the  havoc  of  sixteenth- century  Ireland 
he  gave  us  a  drama  on  a  very  modern  ordeal,  Creid- 
eamli  agus  Gorta  (Faith,  or  rather  Creed,  and 
Famine).  The  trial  of  an  Irish  mother  who  might 
save  her  starving  children,  in  '47,  by  changing  her 
religion,  or  pretending  to  change  it,  is  the  main  burden. 
The  picture  of  the  tempters,  the  "  soupers,"  who  are 
represented  as  hateful  hypocrites,  has  been  resented  by 
some,  and  is  possibly  overdone,  though  it  follows  a 
popular  tradition.  The  finale  is  tender  and  touching. 
A  subsequent  play.  An  Tohar  Draoidheachta  ("The 
Enchanted  Well"),  is  superior  as  a  dramatic  effort. 
The  enchanted  well,  the  fairies,  and  the  rest,  are  no 
make-believe  in  rural  Irish-speaking  places,  though 
few  priests  give  them  philosophical,  literary,  or  any 


124      THE    POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

other  recognition.  They  represent  part  of  the  effort  to 
give  dramatic  embodiment  to  the  wonders  beyond 
our  ken  ;  they  typify  mysterious  realities.  In  Father 
Dinneen's  play,  though  the  environment  is  wonder- 
land, nothing  happens  to  the  human  characters  that  is 
not  consonant  with  their  natures.  The  determining 
forces  are  the  good  or  evil  traits  within  themselves. 
In  writings  like  this  Father  Dinneen  seems  to  forget 
literature  and  libraries,  to  give  his  own  power  and 
inspiration  play,  and  so  to  achieve  truer  work.  Some 
of  his  prose,  though  it  is  in  its  way  eloquent,  misses 
this  distinction.  His  work  on  Irish  prose  literature 
is  marred,  to  my  mind,  by  the  translation,  often 
literal,  of  terms  and  technicalities  of  French  and 
English  and  other  modern  criticism,  some  of  it 
second-hand  or  derivative  criticism,  not  to  mention 
catch-phrases.  The  underlying  conceptions  could  be 
expressed  quite  naturally  and  freshly  in  his  own  lan- 
guage ;  though  sometimes,  to  be  sure,  it  would 
demand  a  little  trouble,  but  with  its  formative  and 
adaptive  resources  the  language  would  never  fail  him. 
Father  Dinneen  has  written  other  Irish  plays  and 
descriptive  prose  works,  edited  an  excellent  though 
incomplete  Irish-English  dictionary,  and  rendered 
Gospel  narratives  into  Irish  verse.  A  splendid  side  of 
his  work  is  seen  in  his  editions  of  Irish  poets  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  even  though 
in  one  or  two  cases  the  editing  was  somewhat  hurried 
and  inexact.  Apart  from  their  lyi'ical  and  literary 
significance,  O'Rahilly,  Eoghan  Rua  O'Sullivan, 
Sean  Clarach  MacDomhnaill,  the  "  Maigue  Poets," 
&c.,  give  us  vivid  light  on  long  periods  of  Irish 
social  and  mental  history.     Father  Dinneen  has  also 


FEAR  OF  LIBERAL  CATHOLICISM     125 

published  an  Irish  life  of  Eoghan  Kua,  who  in  some 
respects  reminds  us  of  Bums.  Much  of  all  this 
poetry  was  a  great  popular  possession  and  moving 
power  for  generations,  and  some  of  it  has  retained  its 
hold  on  southern  Irish  folk  to  our  own  day.  Father 
Dinneen's  editions,  and  collections  in  the  same 
sphere  by  a  few  others,  brought  it  forth  to  wider 
life  and  appreciation.  Indeed  his  labour  in  this 
line  was  not  so  much  editing  in  the  ordinary  sense 
as  a  great  national  rescue  work. 

So  much  for  literature,  to  which,  with  editorial 
intervals.  Father  Dinneen  has  devoted  his  main 
energies  since  his  retirement  from  active  service  with 
the  Jesuits.  He  is  a  very  composite  individuality, 
and,  like  many  great  men,  has  what  ordinary  vision 
regards  as  peculiarities.  We  might  liken  him  to  the 
mountain  stream  :  now  radiant  in  its  gleam,  now 
unaccountable  in  its  course,  at  times  e^ddying  vehe- 
mently round  obstacles,  anon  noble  in  its  volume 
and  its  force.  He  has  intense  convictions,  and  a 
host  of  minor  opinions  that  seem  incidental  and  un- 
important, but  for  which  he  is  prepared  to  do  battle 
with  fiery  ardour.  He  is  a  perfervid  champion  of 
ecclesiasticism,  and  sees  enmity  and  danger  to  the 
Church  in  the  straight  and  strong  assertion  of  the 
rights  of  laymen.  He  has  long  been  troubled  on 
the  score  of  liberal  Catholicism  in  Ireland.  I  used 
to  remind  him  that  real  Catholicism  was  always 
understood  to  be  liberal,  but  he  would  not  answer ; 
he  credited  me  with  a  constant  desire  to  provoke 
him  into  controversy.  He  did  not  much  care  for 
the  association  of  Protestants  and  Catholics  in  the 
Gaelic   League ;    at   one    stage    he    suggested  in  a 


126      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

magazine  published  by  the  Dominicans,  that  it  might 
be  necessary  to  establish  a  strictly  Catholic  Gaelic 
League.  The  Portarlington  developments  alarmed 
him;  the  temper  of  the  Ard-Fheis  of  1906  distressed 
him.  While  on  the  Coisde  Gnotha,  the  executive 
of  the  League,  he  seldom  saw  eye  to  eye  with  his 
colleagues,  including  priests,  on  any  question  of 
clerical  bearing.  Thus  in  1907,  when  the  bishops, 
acting  as  trustees  of  Maynooth,  did  something 
that  looked  like  lowering  the  status  of  Irish  in 
the  College,  and  great  disaffection  arose  amongst 
students,  and  the  executive  quite  frankly  but  politely 
expressed  its  own  feelings  in  a  long  correspondence 
with  the  president.  Father  Dinneen  saw  dictation, 
disrespect,  and  other  things  in  various  stages  of  the 
procedure.  At  a  decisive  point  he  found  himself  in 
a  minority  of  one,  all  his  brother  priests  and  the 
laymen  being  quite  unanimous.  I  saw  for  some  time 
that  his  intense  pro-clericalism  and  his  public  hints 
— as  at  the  leading  Dublin  branch  of  which  he  was 
president — of  things  wrong  and  dangerous  in  the 
League  would  lead  to  trouble,  and  that  his  deservedly 
great  influence  owing  to  fine  work  done  would  make 
it  difficult  to  meet  him.  The  fact  that  his  fears  were 
at  once  wild  and  sincere  made  the  position  all  the 
more  awkward. 

The  trouble  came  with  a  vengeance  in  May  1908. 
Father  Dinneen  published  a  severe  criticism  of  the 
executive  in  a  letter  in  the  Freeman's  Journal,  and 
declared  that  he  was  resigning  his  membership, 
though  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  did  not  resign.  Put 
briefly  his  charges  were  that  the  serious  interests  of 
the  Irish  language  were  being  neglected,  and  ground 


FEAR  OF  LIBERAL  CATHOLICISM    127 

lost  in  several  ways — quite  strange  statements — 
while  the  executive  was  trimming  its  sails  in  accord- 
ance with  the  wishes  of  a  Castle  Department.  This 
from  a  popular  member  of  the  executive  itself  was 
startling.  The  "  Castle  "  was  the  unkindest  cut  of 
all.  Dublin  Castle  is  not  exactly  popular  with  any- 
body in  Ireland,  but  to  hundreds  of  thousands  it 
stands  for  all  that  is  most  gloomily  anti-Irish  and 
repressive ;  even  sympathetic  Chief  Secretaries  are 
supposed  to  be  hard  set  to  do  anything  humanising 
with  it.  The  most  cruel  and  damaging  thing  that 
can  be  said  about  a  bishop  is  that  he  is  a  "  Castle 
bishop,"  and  it  is  sometimes  true,  though  we  are 
expected  to  veil  the  fact  discreetly ;  but  on  this  as 
other  things  even  very  young  Ireland  has  opinions  of 
its  own.  I  and  a  friend  had  our  eyes  opened  in  this 
regard  some  time  ago  by  the  manuscript  book  of  an 
Irish  youth  of  thirteen.  One  of  his  original  sketches 
described  the  coming  down  to  contemporary  Ireland 
of  St.  Michael  the  Archangel,  with  an  immense 
Bible  under  his  arm.  On  arriving  in  Dublin  he  was 
asked  the  purpose  of  this  huge  Bible.  "  To  soften 
the  swelled  heads  of  Castle  bishops,"  was  the 
startling  answer  of  the  Archangel. 

What  Father  Dinneen  really  meant  was  that  the 
education  committee,  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
executive,  had  had  business  communications  with 
the  Irish  Education  Office,  the  National  Board,  as 
it  is  called,  which  controls  Irish  primary  education 
generally,  while  the  clerical  managers  control  the 
teachers  particularly.  It  is  not  a  Castle  Department, 
indeed  it  is  not  easy  to  say  exactly  what  it  is. 
Parliament  appears  to  have  no  more  control  over 


128      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

it  than  Ireland  has.  The  Treasury  has  a  certain 
power  so  far  as  funds  go,  and  the  members  of  the 
Board,  or  Commissioners,  hold  their  posts  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  which  means  in 
practice  that  they  go  their  own  sweet  way.  Several 
of  them  have  had  no  particular  experience  or  qualifi- 
cations in  regard  to  education  questions.  A  judge 
or  a  coal  merchant  is  expected  to  do  quite  well  as 
a  commissioner  or  director  of  Irish  primary  educa- 
tion. Very  often  he  knows  nothing  of  Irish  educa- 
tional requirements  outside  Dublin,  and  does  not 
believe  that  the  people  can  know  either.  It  is  a 
singular  system  altogether,  and  it  needs  almost 
constant  agitation  or  criticism  to  bring  it  nearly  into 
line  with  growing  needs  and  broadening  ideals.  In- 
deed one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  of  the  Ireland 
of  the  last  fifteen  years  or  more  is  the  widening  and 
deepening  popular  interest  in  education  of  different 
kinds,  and  the  difficulty  of  making  the  popular 
will  effective.  Even  yet  agricultural  science,  though 
supremely  important  to  Ireland,  has  only  a  paltry 
place  in  Irish  education,  much  of  which  is  a  sap- 
less, characterless  thing,  calculated  to  turn  out  clerks 
and  sundry  entities  for  export  rather  than  trained 
home  workers  and  virile  citizens  in  the  broad  sense. 
The  intermediate  system,  with  its  unrepresentative  and 
largely  hostile  directors  and  its  vicious  cramming,  is 
even  worse  than  the  primary.  The  Gaelic  League,  a 
popular  Education  Department  amongst  other  things, 
has  had  long  and  hard  battling  with  both,  especially 
with  the  Primary  or  National  Board,  which  has  been 
moved  steadily  if  sometimes  slowly,  the  Resident 
Commissioner,  Dr.  Starkie,  one  of  whose  enthusiasms 


FEAR  OF  LIBEKAL  CATHOIJCISM     129 

is  Aristophanes,  proving  generally  sympathetic  and 
anxious  to  help  progressive  efforts. 

At  the  time  of  Father  Dinneen's  declaration  of 
war  the  communications  in  progress  concerned  the 
question  of  fees  for  Irish,  on  which  some  of  Father 
Dinneen's  friends  had  peculiar  notions  not  shared  by 
the  executive,  while  teachers  themselves  were  some- 
what divided  on  the  matter.  Where  Irish  was  taught 
as  an  "  extra,"  or  outside  the  technical  school  "  day," 
or  where  extern  teachers  of  Irish  were  employed, 
it  was  right,  of  course,  that  fees  should  be  paid; 
where  the  language  was  taught  by  the  regular  teacher 
as  part  of  his  ordinary  day's  work  it  was  not  right, 
though  Father  Dinneen's  friends  maintained  the 
contrary,  that  fees  or  any  special  payment  should 
be  given  for  Irish — in  that  event  the  teacher  would 
really  get  double  payment  for  Irish.  In  regard  to 
bi-lingual  schools,  where  Irish  and  English  were 
teaching  media,  there  was  no  controversy  so  far  as 
I  remember.  At  this  stage  the  situation  was  further 
complicated  by  questions  relating  to  the  Irish  Uni- 
versity Bill,  though  the  really  memorable  struggle  in 
which  practically  the  whole  nation  was  concerned — 
on  other  issues — did  not  come  till  somewhat  later. 
At  this  time  Father  Dinneen's  coadjutors  and  followers 
made  the  strange  discovery  that  the  Gaelic  League 
executive  was  not  sufficiently  thorough-going  in 
regard  to  the  position  of  Irish  in  the  coming  Univer- 
sity, and  they  and  Sinn  Fein,  the  official  organ  of 
the  most  advanced  political  party,  made  the  truly 
astonishing  claim  that  clauses  making  Irish  essential 
at  matriculation,  and  so  on,  should  be  embodied  in 
the  Bill  before  it  left  Westminster.     Obviously  this 

I 


130      THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

was  impossible,  or  in  the  highest  degree  unlikely; 
anyway  it  was  not  the  business  of  Westminster. 
Making  Irish  or  anything  else  essential  was  some- 
thing to  be  done  in  Ireland  by  the  Board  of  Studies 
and  Senate  if  Ireland  wanted  it  to  be  done.  Any- 
how, what  with  the  "  Castle  "  charges,  the  criticism 
of  the  executive  for  other  alleged  delinquencies,  the 
Irish  "  fees  "  confusion,  and  the  University  crux,  the 
position  became  strained  and  exciting,  especially  as 
Father  Dinneen  and  certain  of  his  friends  could  be 
very  powerful  and  impassioned  controversialists  when 
really  aroused,  while  Sinn  Fein  when  moved  had 
remarkable  vigour  and  a  certain  unlucky  genius  for 
confusing  plain  issues.  The  enemies,  especially 
ecclesiastical  enemies,  of  the  Gaelic  League  were 
gleeful ;  and  it  is  always  to  be  remembered  that  in 
such  cases  when  we  say  "  Gaelic  League"  we  mean 
several  things  besides  a  mere  organisation :  we  mean 
native  culture ;  national  ideas  above  class,  creed,  or 
party ;  frank  and  friendly  association  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  men  and  women,  in  Irish  and 
humanising  work ;  no  clerical  leading-strings,  no 
interference  from  Rome  or  Armagh ;  high  and  genial 
comradeship  and  ardour ;  democracy  in  the  right 
sense  ;  and  much  more.  I  saw  from  the  outset  that 
several  of  our  friends  were  in  danger  of  being  turned 
from  the  realisation  of  the  things  really  at  stake ; 
and  indeed  matters  grew  so  troublesome  that  a  special 
Ard-Fheis  or  Congress  of  the  Gaelic  League  was 
asked  for  and  summoned.  So  the  Peasant  set  itself 
to  carry  the  war  into  Africa.  On  the  publication 
of  Father  Dinneen's  onslaught  it  reminded  him  that 
talking  about  Castle  Departments  was  easy  and  had 


FEAR  OF  LIBERAL  CATHOLICISM     131 

an  exciting  effect  upon  the  popular  mind ;  but  it 
was  not  the  Castle  that  was  responsible  for  English 
sermons  and  English  teaching  in  so  many  Irish- 
speaking  districts.  What  of  his  friends,  the  Church 
and  school  authorities,  in  much  of  the  Gaoltacht? 
Father  Dinneen,  it  was  further  said,  was  broad- 
minded  and  progressive  in  certain  respects,  but  he 
had  a  curious  dread  of  an  educated  and  active 
laity  astonishing  in  a  cultured  man ;  at  heart  his 
deepest  fear  about  the  Gaelic  League  was  not  that 
it  would  come  to  terms  with  the  Castle,  but  that  it 
would  grow  too  independent.  And  in  a  long  leading 
article  we  came  to  the  vital  question.  It  will  be 
as  well  in  this  chapter  to  quote  typical  points  as  they 
were  put  in  the  full  stress  of  the  fray : — 

"  Does  the  general  Gaelic  Leaguer  desire  to  see  the 
organisation  wrecked  ?  There  are  certain  people — 
one  of  whom  we  believe  to  be  Father  Dinneen  :  we 
are  open  to  contradiction  from  him — who  consider 
that  the  break-up  of  the  organisation  would  do  cer- 
tain good  and  no  harm.  Their  theory  is  that  Irish 
language  and  kindred  study  would  now  go  ahead 
without  any  organisation,  so  the  main  purpose  of  the 
movement  would  be  achieved ;  while  they  believe,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  the  development  of  a  powerful 
and  independent  body  like  the  League,  in  which  all 
creeds  and  classes  can  join  for  national  and  intellec- 
tual ends,  is  dangerous.  The  growth  of  the  League 
on  non-denominational,  national,  and  independent 
lines  has  occasioned  considerable  alarm  and  jealousy, 
and  for  the  past  two  years  very  subtle  efforts  have 
been  made  to  hamper  or  '  control '  it.  The  question 
now  is :  Is  it  to  be  crippled  or  wrecked  ?  .  .  .  Some 


132      THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

[clergymen  in  recent  years]  disliked  the  idea  of  the 
laity  doing  their  own  business,  some  the  friendly 
union  of  Catholics  and  Protestants,  others,  amongst 
whom  was  Father  Dinneen,  were  gravely  troubled 
about  what  they  vaguely  described  as  the  rise  of 
liberal  Catholicism,  which  might  mean  after  all  the 
very  orthodox  Catholicism  of  Newman,  or  Lacordaire, 
or  'J.  K.  L.'  [Bishop  Doyle],  or  the  author  of  The 
Tradition  of  Scripture  [Canon  William  Barry].  .  .  . 
In  the  circumstances  the  position  of  Dr.  Hyde,  of 
whom  Father  Dinneen  and  his  friends  have  shown  a 
curious  jealousy,  is  an  awkward  one.  He  is  a  Pro- 
testant, and,  for  fear  of  being  misunderstood,  dislikes 
to  say  much  on  a  sore  question  in  a  susceptible  land. 
It  is  the  bounden  duty  of  Catholic  Gaelic  Leaguers 
to  be  firm  in  this  matter ;  if  they  shirk  the  duty  now 
the  evil  consequences  will  be  great.  .   .  ." 

By  the  following  week  the  situation  had  become 
more  exciting.  Father  Dinneen  and  his  friends  had 
grown  more  active  and  more  militant.  In  public  they 
evaded  the  religious  question  and  its  bearings.  We 
kept  it  right  to  the  front : — 

"  There  are  good  workers,  even  if  some  of  them  are 
rather  hot-headed  or  oblique-minded,  on  the  side  of 
Father  Dinneen,  who  of  course  is  a  notable,  if  uncer- 
tain, personality  himself.  .  .  .  But  they  do  not  under- 
stand his  guiding  and  driving  ideas  ;  his  fear  of  liberal 
Catholicism  (whatever  on  earth  it  really  is),  his  dread 
of  a  non-denominational  and  national  Connradh,  his 
desire  for  an  exclusively  Catholic  Gaelic  League.  It 
is  only  the  extreme  and  hostile  sections  of  the  clergy, 
and  those  who  misunderstand  the  Gaelic  League,  who 
sympathise  with  those  wayward  notions.  ...  As  we 
said  before,  and  cannot  say  too  often,  they  are  jealous 


FEAR  OF  LIBERAL  CATHOLICISM     138 

of  the  growth  of  a  powerful  and  independent  organisa- 
tion which  joins  all  creeds  in  national  work,  but 
scrupulously  avoids  interference  with  the  sacred  con- 
cerns of  any  creed  or  any  conscience. 

"  Dr.  Hyde  is  an  obstacle  in  their  way,  and  a  safe- 
guard of  the  Gaelic  League.  Apart  from  his  great 
popularity  and  distinction,  he  keeps  the  League  stead- 
fastly to  its  high  national  purpose,  when  he  is  in  health 
and  at  the  helm.  He  would  be  a  bold  man  who 
would  say  that  Dr.  Hyde,  who  is  a  felicitous  embodi- 
ment of  Gaelic  League  ideas,  interferes  with  any  one's 
faith,  or  meddles  in  any  one's  politics.  He  is  toler- 
ance personified.  .  .  . 

"  Of  thci  present  developments  of  the  campaign — 
the  sincere  but  mistaken  campaign — of  An  t  Athair 
Padraig  and  his  friends,  there  are  indeed  different 
explanations  by  those  behind  the  scenes,  though  all 
agree  that  whatever  the  explanation,  or  the  mixture 
of  explanations,  the  campaigners  have  no  love  for  Dr. 
Hyde.  Whether  Father  Dinneen  honestly  and  seri- 
ously desires  the  ending  of  the  Gaelic  League  as  a 
non-denominational  organisation  or — in  the  other 
view — desires  himself  to  lead  it  and  give  it  a  de- 
nominational trend,  is,  however,  a  matter  of  no  great 
moment,  for,  as  we  strongly  believe,  neither  idea  can 
be  carried  into  effect.  The  Gaelic  League  as  a 
common,  cordial,  enlivening  haunt  of  peace,  study, 
enthusiasm,  and  camaraderie,  is  too  precious  to  too 
many  people  to  allow  them  to  let  its  maintenance  on 
its  present  lines  be  jeopardised.  In  the  interest  of 
the  language,  the  nation,  and  religion  itself  we  want 
fraternal  co-operation,  not  a  series  of  denominational 
concentration  camps." 

The  article,  a  very  long  one,  that  spoke  for  others 


134      THE   POPE'S    GKEEN   ISLAND 

in  the  inner  councils  of  the  Gaelic  League  as  well  as 
the  writer,  was  entitled  "  Is  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde  to  be 
Superseded  ?  "  It  stressed  the  very  points  that  Father 
Dinneen  and  his  pro-clerical  friends  were  least  anxious 
to  meet.  Some  declared  that  too  much  was  made 
of  their  feeling  about  Dr.  Hyde.  The  suggestion  of 
hostility  to  him,  to  say  nothing  of  possible  deposition, 
had  an  immediate  effect  in  thc/  country.  It  stirred 
the  young  Catholic  laity  to  a  marked  degree.  The 
notion  of  making  the  Gaelic  League  denominational 
was  widely  discussed,  only  to  be  repudiated.  We 
began  to  hear  much  of  these  two  things,  and  less 
about  the  Castle,  the  fees,  and  the  University.  At  a 
special  meeting  of  the  executive  the  members,  lay 
and  clerical,  repudiated  Father  Dinneen's  charges. 
He  in  a  long  speech  at  the  Keating  branch  of  the 
Gaelic  League,  of  which  he  was  president,  a  speech 
carefully  reported  in  the  Freeman,  went  eloquently 
over  the  old  ground,  but  omitted  all  reference  to  the 
challenge  about  denominationalism.  We  kept  it  to 
the  front  all  the  time.  Some  supporters  expressed  the 
fear  that  the  Peasant  went  too  far,  that  the  thorough- 
going declaration  against  sectarianism  in  the  League 
in  any  circumstances  would  be  resented  by  the  con- 
servative clerics,  misunderstood  in  country  places, 
and  productive  of  passions  and  forces  too  strong  for  us. 
The  special  Ard-Fheis  drew  nigh  amidst  excitement 
and  intensity  now  curious  to  recall. 

This  special  Ard-Fheis,  held  in  Dublin  in  June 
1908,  was  a  surprise  if  not  to  friends  at  least  to  foes. 
It  came  at  a  critical  juncture,  after  a  good  deal  of 
passion,  and  in  a  long  sitting  it  reviewed  all  the 
issues  with  earnestness,  good  temper,  and  a  fine  sense 


FEAR  OF  LIBERAL  CATHOLICISM     135 

of  responsibility  and  dignity.  It  was  a  notable  muster 
numerically ;  it  was  heartening  in  its  good  feeling, 
and  thoroughly  effective  in  the  way  it  grappled  with 
the  work.  The  fees  question  was  settled,  in  a  manner 
that  pleased  all  parties,  on  the  proposal,  a  rather  in- 
genious one,  of  a  popular  primary  teacher,  Padraig 
O'Shea  ("  Gruagach  an  Tobair"),  the  author  of  racy 
Irish  country  sketches.  The  University  question  was 
discussed  in  all  its  bearings,  the  executive  view 
accepted,  and  light  and  leading  given  of  a  kind 
which  proved  useful  to  town  and  country  delegates 
in  the  campaign  that  was  to  be.  Father  Dinneen 
did  not  attend  at  all.  The  Congress  cleared  the  air, 
stilled  controversy,  and  left  a  heightened  feeling  of 
cohesion  and  comradeship.  The  fears  and  fancies  of 
the  preceding  months  seemed  amusing  illusions  at 
the  close.  Conservative  clerical  hopes  were  dashed 
once  more. 

Father  Dinneen  did  not  appear  again  in  the  inner 
councils  of  the  Gaelic  League.  We  were  genuinely 
sorry  for  the  anxiety  and  unrest  he  had  caused  him- 
self through  his  strange  and  frustrated  foray.  It 
might  have  done  grievous  harm,  but  in  reality  it  only 
tended  to  show  in  striking  fashion  what  new  lessons 
had  been  learned  and  taken  to  heart  by  comrade 
Catholic  and  Protestant  workers.  Such  being  the 
case  all  could  feel  kindly  towards  Father  Dinneen. 
Even  in  the  hottest  stage  of  the  fray  we  were  never 
likely  to  forget  his  serious  constructive  work — his 
original  Irish  prose  and  the  singers  of  dark  days  he 
had  brought  into  light  anew. 

In  connection  with  all  such  gatherings  there  are 
pleasant  incidental  ironies  and  comedies.     At  this 


136      THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

Congress  Dr.  Hyde  made  his  first  appearance  in 
Dublin  after  a  long  and  serious  illness.  During  the 
illness  shaving  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  and  so  he 
faced  his  host  of  friends  adorned  with  a  right  noble 
beard.  In  the  next  issue  of  the  Peasant  I  gave  in 
Irish  an  imaginary  congress  conversation  between  a 
young  priest  and  an  old  priest.  The  young  priest  was 
represented  as  saying  sadly  that  they  were  all  lost  at 
long  last,  that  Dr.  Hyde  himself  had  gone  over  to  the 
anti-clerics.  When  the  old  priest  wonderingly  de- 
manded an  explanation,  his  young  comrade  said  the 
thing  was  obvious.  No  cleric  wore  a  beard  ;  no  friend 
of  the  clergy  wore  a  beard ;  hitherto  Dr.  Hyde  had 
never  worn  a  beard ;  but  now  he  had  immeasurably 
more  of  a  beard  than  even  a  notorious  anti-clerical 
editor  himself;  the  beard  was  the  sign  and  symbol  of 
his  anti-clericalism.  By  this  time  the  older  priest 
saw  the  joke,  such  as  it  was.  I  had  forgotten  this 
trifling  when,  some  days  later,  at  a  Dublin  gathering. 
Dr.  Hyde  appeared  on  the  scene,  quite  clean-shaven 
and  suifering  from  something  of  a  cold.  A  lady 
friend  commented  with  surprise  and  regret  on  the 
disappearance  of  his  beard.  He  answered  laughingly 
that  he  had  been  obliged  to  shave  off  the  beard  and 
risk  a  bad  cold  after  what  I  in  my  Avickedness  had 
published.  We  all  laughed,  and  of  course  treated 
the  matter  as  a  joke,  but  really  it  might  have  had  a 
serious  basis ;  it  was  like  what  the  kindly,  concilia- 
tory, diplomatic  Dr.  Hyde  would  feel  bound  to  do  in 
a  land  of  sensitive  clerics.  Anyway  anti-clericalism 
has  been  seen  on  occasion  in  things  just  as  innocent 
as  beards. 


CHAPTER   XI 

PEOPLE    V.    BISHOPS 

The  problem  of  a  Catholic  University  for  Ireland  had 
long  troubled  the  minds  of  Irish  bishops,  and  to  a 
less  extent,  and  intermittently,  of  English  ministers. 
As  prospects  grow  brighter  in  the  twentieth  century 
the  bishops,  to  their  great  concern,  heard  the  Catholic 
laity  talk  less  of  a  Catholic  University,  and  more  of 
a  National  University  to  which  Catholics  could  go ; 
finally  the  talk  was  mostly  of  a  National  University 
pure  and  simple.  When  Mr.  Birrell's  measure  ap- 
proached its  final  stages  the  burning  question  with 
young  Ireland  was  the  possibility  of  nationalising  the 
coming  institution  from  the  start ;  it  was  the  national 
aspect  that  was  stressed  in  all  discussions.  One 
prelate,  bolder  of  speech  than  his  brethren,  roundly 
characterised  all  this  in  private  as  "audacity."  Bishops 
had  stood  out  and  struggled  for  a  Catholic  University, 
and  here  were  those  clamorous  lay  folk  insisting  on 
making  it  a  National  University.  Still  more  signi- 
ficantly, a  virile  democratic  note  had  begun  to  ring 
in  the  land.  It  was  declared  again  and  again  that 
the  way  of  talented  children  of  the  people  must  be 
smoothed  right  up  to  the  University,  that  the  primary 
teachers  must  in  future  have  their  share  of  University 
culture  and  advantages,  whether  through  the  "  link- 
ing-up  "  of  their  training  colleges  with  the  institution, 
or  by  other  suitable  means.     Much  was  said  about 


138      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

the  crying  need  of  training  bright  and  earnest  young 
students  who  would  give  their  hearts  and  minds  to 
Ireland,  while  there  was  a  liberal  share  of  plain  speak- 
ing against  the  notion  of  merely  providing  for  the 
higher  education  of  "  Catholic  snobs."  Indeed  in  a 
dramatic  hour  at  a  later  stage,  when  the  bishops  had 
roused  a  national  passion  that  astonished  them,  a  big- 
hearted  priest  exclaimed,  at  a  meeting  of  the  executive 
of  the  Gaelic  League  :  "  We  must  have  this  Univer- 
sity for  the  Irish-minded,  and  let  the  Catholic  snobs 
go  to  Hell."  "  But  surely.  Father,"  said  a  lady 
member,  when  the  laughter  had  subsided,  "it  is 
rather  your  business  to  keep  people,  even  snobs,  out 
of  Hell."  Others  of  us  thought  that  if  Hell  were  to 
be  kept  as  a  going  concern,  somebody  must  go  there, 
and  Ireland's  contribution  might  well  be  snobs ;  any 
way,  to  have  ecclesiastical  sanction  for  the  notion 
was  helpful. 

In  June  1908,  no  sooner  had  the  Gaelic  League 
Congress  declared  in  eifect  that  it  would  not  be 
bullied  into  a  campaign  in  the  dark  against  the  new 
University  scheme  than  episcopal  and  clerical  leaders 
came  forth  in  quick  succession  to  protest  against  it, 
and  not  for  real  or  alleged  educational  deficiencies 
either,  but  because  it  did  not  give  ecclesiastics  ex- 
officio  powers  incompatible  with  the  spirit  of  demo- 
cracy. Such  in  brief  was  the  meaning  of  complaining 
pronouncements  by  Dr.  O'Dwyer,  the  Bishop  of 
Limerick,  the  Catholic  clerical  managers,  and  lastly 
Cardinal  Logue.  They  did  not  adopt  at  any  point 
the  national  educational  policy,  or  the  expectant  but 
critical  attitude  of  the  Gaelic  League.  They  said 
nothing  about  Irish  ideas,  or  industrial  and  scientific 


PEOPLE   V.   BISHOPS  139 

education  for  the  children  of  the  people  ;  in  fact  they 
expressed  no  educational  ideal  or  enthusiasm  at  all. 
They  did  not  appear,  as  we  reminded  them  at  the  time, 
either  to  trust  the  people  or  to  consider  the  people. 
The  Cardinal,  in  a  speech  at  Cork,  described  the 
so-called  "  exclusion  "  of  clergymen  from  the  govern- 
ing bodies  of  the  new  institution  as  "  persecution"  ; 
but,  as  we  also  reminded  him,  he  had  nothing  to  say 
of  the  gross  injustice  of  the  very  real  and  deliberate 
exclusion  of  the  Catholic  laity  from  any  share  in  the 
control  of  the  primary  schools  of  the  country.  I  said 
in  the  Peasant  that  Ireland  was  tired  of  these 
episcopal  doubts  and  lamentations ;  it  was  the  old, 
weary  story  :  debating  timorously  as  to  what  educa- 
tion might  do  or  undo,  and  the  number  of  restrictions 
and  leading-strings  that  must  be  adopted,  instead  of 
bravely  securing  education  for  a  distracted  and  droop- 
ing nation,  and  gallantly  trusting  native  intelligence 
and  human  nature.  Ireland,  like  the  progressive 
parts  of  the  world,  would  soon  or  late  grow  impatient 
with,  or  indifferent  to,  that  order  of  argument,  feeling 
that  it  did  not  touch  the  compelling  modern  problems 
of  mind  and  life  at  all. 

Much  of  Ireland  in  point  of  fact  had  already 
grown  impatient  with  it.  The  episcopal  complaints 
fell  on  wholly  unsympathetic  ears.  The  popular 
disposition,  clearly  shown,  was  to  take  the  University 
machinery  and  make  it  as  Irish  and  as  serviceable 
as  possible.  The  prelates  saw  plainly  that  they 
must  take  new  ground.  The  plain  speaking  of  the 
Peasant  evidently  hurt  the  Cardinal.  Within  a 
fortnight  he  went  down  to  Kilkenny  on  the  eve  of 
a   Feis.      He    pointedly   ignored    the    Feis,    which 


140      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

proved,  however,  an  unprecedented  success,  but 
delivered  on  the  evening  of  his  arrival  an  extra- 
ordinary address  on  anti-clericalism  in  the  Gaelic 
League.  The  irony  of  it  was  that  the  League 
officially  was  notably  and  palpably  conciliatory  to- 
wards clerics — far  too  much  so  for  many  of  the  rank 
and  file.  It  never  began  a  quaiTel,  and  was  not 
quick  even  to  take  up  challenges.  The  Cardinal 
spoke  of  a  clique  "  who  seem  to  have  been  touched, 
and  touched  deeply,  with  the  mania  that  has  nearly 
ruined  education  in  France,  and  who,  in  consequence, 
wish,  like  their  Nonconformist  friends  in  England, 
to  keep  the  priests  out  of  the  schools."  To  this  I 
answered  that  we  were  not  aware  of  any  clique  in 
the  Gaelic  League  or  elsewhere  that  desired  to  keep 
the  priests  out  of  the  schools,  though  some  priests 
appeared  to  be  rather  slow  to  enter  them  or  take 
any  active  interest  therein.  The  real  criticism  was 
twofold :  that  many  clergymen  did  not  attend  more 
thoroughly  to  religious  education,  and  that  the  laity 
had  no  part  whatever  in  the  vital  business  of  direct- 
ing secular  education.  But  what  was  "the  mania 
that  had  nearly  ruined  education  in  France  "  ?  Surely 
we  were  not  all  densely  ignorant  of  modern  French 
history.  The  clergy  had  had  plenty  of  control  in 
French  education,  and  what  was  the  result?  The 
ecclesiastical  institutions  turned  out  very  indifferently 
educated  Catholics.  The  Cardinal's  next  point,  or 
threat,  was  that  the  day  the  "  anti-clericals  "  succeeded 
in  making  the  Gaelic  League  "  an  instrument  to 
turn  any  section  of  the  people  of  Ireland  against  the 
priesthood  of  Ireland  would  see  the  end  of  the 
Gaelic   League."     I   reminded  him    of  xlrchbishop 


PEOPLE   V,   BISHOPS  141 

MacHale's  declaration  that  if  the  Irish  people  ever 
turned  against  the  priesthood  it  would  not  be  the  fault 
of  the  people.  Also  that  his  Eminence  might  consider 
the  other  side  of  the  picture :  sections  of  the  priest- 
hood turned  against  the  people  and  against  nationality, 
just  as  sections  of  the  French  priesthood  had  been 
turned  against  the  French  Republic,  with  disastrous 
consequences  not  for  the  Republic  but  for  the  priest- 
hood. In  modem  times,  I  added,  it  was  hopeless 
for  priesthood,  or  episcopacy,  or  the  Propaganda, 
or  the  Papacy  itself,  to  attempt  a  successful  war 
against  nationality,  and  it  was  no  part  of  the  mission 
of  one  or  all  of  them  to  try  it.  The  Cardinal  also 
tried  to  point  a  menacing  moral  by  recalling  what  had 
happened  when  Protestant  versions  of  the  Bible  were 
first  extensively  circulated  in  Irish- speaking  districts. 
To  escape  the  Bibles  the  people  were  encouraged  by 
the  clergy  to  let  the  Irish  language  die !  I  said  it 
might  be  imagined  that  nobody  would  be  prepared  at 
this  time  of  day  to  refer  with  any  feeling  save  sorrow 
and  humiliation  to  that  fatuous  proceeding. 

'*  His  Eminence  raised  shadowy  issues.  There 
are  plenty  of  real  ones,  social  and  intellectual,  in 
Ireland,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  these  are  not  the  ones 
which  leading  Churchmen  will  tackle  when  they 
address  the  masses.  In  our  cities  and  shrunken 
towns  and  waste  country  places  anti-clericalism  may 
well  seem  a  shadow,  but  anti-humanity  a  bitter  and 
oppressive  reality.  Life,  labour,  mind,  and  soul  are 
cheap  and  largely  helpless  in  Ireland,  and  all  the 
work  of  the  Gaelic  League  so  far  is  no  more  than 
a  little  breath  and  a  little  balm  to  a  wasting  body 
and  a  distracted   imagination.     Standing    critically 


142      THE   POPE'S    GKEEN   ISLAND 

apart  and  discoursing  of  anti-clericalism  seems  sadly 
unreal.  A  passionate  pity  and  brave  constructive 
work  are  what  we  might  well  expect  from  all  our 
leaders,  intellectual  and  spiritual." 

Contributors  in  Kilkenny  itself  wrote  very  frankly 
indeed  about  the  Cardinal's  action,  but  the  rally  and 
enthusiasm  at  the  Feis  on  the  day  succeeding  his 
address  made  the  most  pointed  answer  of  all.  There 
were  sundry  signs  of  growing  restiveness.  The  pre- 
valent tendency  of  high  ecclesiastics  to  make  defer- 
ence or  even  servility  to  the  clergy  rather  than  life 
and  conduct  and  achievement  the  test  of  Catholicity 
was  patiently  endured  no  longer.  Even  less  than 
the  majority  of  his  episcopal  brethren  did  the  Cardinal 
understand  the  Ireland  that  was  in  the  way  of  coming 
to  herself.  He  was  aged  and  isolated,  he  had 
practically  no  serious  advisers,  there  was  a  gulf 
between  him  and  the  more  progressive  and  en- 
lightened of  the  clergy.  His  personally  kindly  and 
homely  traits  ensured  for  him  a  mild  popularity,  but 
his  national  spirit  was  considered  lukewarm,  he  did 
not  understand  the  idea  of  an  Ireland  with  a  passion 
for  minding  her  own  business  and  developing  her 
own  innate  resources  rather  than  begging  and  preach- 
ing abroad,  so  the  University  idealists  bewildered 
him  as  much  as  the  "  anti-clerics  "  alarmed  him. 

But  the  "  anti-clerics "  Avere  undaunted,  and  the 
exposition  of  the  true  University  ideal  in  the  new  cir- 
cumstances was  carried  on  with  power  and  persist- 
ence. The  whole  question  turned  on  the  initial 
necessity  of  making  Irish  essential  or  obligatory  at 
matriculation  in  the  new  University.  Some  who 
were  quite  friendly  to  the  language  and  its  interests 


PEOPLE   V.    BISHOPS  143 

were  at  first  of  opinion  that  this  would  be  a  matter 
of  serious  difficulty  or  hardship,  and  they  disliked 
what  they  considered  to  be  "  compulsion."  This 
will  probably  seem  a  reasonable  and  practical  view 
to  a  number  of  non-Irish  readers,  and  they  may 
wonder  why  the  masses  of  the  people  came  to  take 
an  entirely  difierent  view.  Why  not  leave  Irish 
optional?  Let  us  see  the  view  of  the  Irish-minded 
majority,  leaders  and  followers.  War,  legislative 
and  otherwise,  had  been  waged  for  generations 
against  the  Irish  language,  as  against  Irish  religion, 
Irish  industry  and  commerce,  and  the  immemorial 
Irish  land  system.  The  latter  was  destroyed  long 
ago,  the  industry  and  commerce  were  killed  or 
crippled.  In  regard  to  the  religion,  England  came  to 
terms  with  the  ofiicial  Catholic  authorities  in  Ireland, 
and  the  official  Church  thereafter,  an  occasional 
figure  like  Archbishop  MacHale  excepted,  was  a 
powerful  force  against  the  already  losing  language, 
whose  misfortunes  were  further  augmented  by  the 
Great  Famine.  Steadily  through  nearly  all  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  Irish  ideas  and  culture 
receded  and  grew  dimmer.  The  Gael  might  say 
with  the  Old  Woman  of  Beara  : — 

"  Ebb-tide  to  me ! 
For  with  the  ebbing  sea  my  life  flows  out. 
Old  age  has  caught  and  compassed  me  about. 
I  mourn  the  glad  days  passed  away  from  me." 

But  if  the  tide  ebbed  it  also  turned.  It  had  been 
returning  since  at  least  the  mid-nineties.  Apart 
from  the  positive  results  and  achievements  there  had 
come  a  new  feeling  as  to  the  place  of  Irish  in  our 
educational  systems ;  there  had  been  a  long  struggle 


144      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

to  Irishise  the  primary  and  secondary  schools,  where 
the  people  as  yet  had  no  direct  control.  When  the 
new  University  came,  or  before  it  came,  it  was  em- 
phatically declared  that  it  must  be  brought  as  far  as 
possible  into  harmony  with  Irish  ideals  and  require- 
ments. Certain  things,  like  Latin,  French,  physics, 
mathematics,  are  essential  or  obligatory  at  entrance 
to  a  western  University ;  in  an  Irish  University, 
the  Irish  language,  &c.,  must  be  pai't  of  the 
basis  and  scheme.  When  it  was  objected  that  this 
might  mean  favour  or  preference  in  regard  to  Irish 
as  yet  the  answer  was :  No,  it  means  conformity  with 
our  national  and  educational  ideal ;  even  were  it 
preference — w^ell,  we've  had  generations  of  enactment 
and  compulsion  against  Irish,  now  it  is  time  to  undo 
a  little  of  the  evil.  When  it  was  further  objected 
that  the  secondary  colleges  and  other  institutions  had 
not  had  time  to  come  into  line  with  the  new  order,  the 
reply  was  that  several  of  their  conductors  had  not 
availed  themselves  of  their  opportunities,  and  would 
never  do  so  if  left  to  themselves.  They  were  against 
the  people  and  against  Irish  ideas  ;  and  the  seminaries 
under  the  bishops  were  amongst  the  worst.  Making 
Irish  essential  in  the  University  at  once  or  with  a 
time-limit  would  necessarily  have  the  immediate 
effect  of  bringing  into  line  those  schools  and  colleges 
in  whose  management  the  people  or  the  nation  had 
no  voice.  Another  gi'eat  point  insisted  on  was  this. 
To  make  Irish  one  of  the  essential  subjects  would  be 
a  helpful  democratic  move,  an  aid  to  the  "  poor  man's 
son,"  who  had  at  his  door  the  opportunity  of  securing 
a  first-rate  training  in  Irish.  This  is  only  a  slight 
summary    of  the    reasons  —  patriotic,    tactical,    and 


PEOPLE    V.    BISHOPS  145 

practical — in  favour  of  essential  Irish  in  the  Uni- 
versity that  had  begun  to  ring  through  the  land. 
Many  declined  to  give  "reasons"  at  all.  People, 
they  suggested,  are  not  expected  to  give  "reasons" 
for  sanity  or  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  "  reasons  " 
for  Irish  in  Ireland  were  equally  uncalled  for.  We 
gave  all  sides  a  hearing  in  the  Peasant,  but  after  a 
little  while  the  friendly  doubters  and  pessimists  were 
swept  into  the  main  current.  At  an  early  stage  a 
learned  and  thoughtful  contributor,  who  soon  changed 
her  mind,  expressed  her  dislike  of  what  she  believed 
to  be  "  compulsion,"  though  apparently  the  "  com- 
pulsion" in  regard  to  Latin,  physics,  &c.,  did  not 
strike  her.  One  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  Irish- 
minded  ecclesiastics,  himself  a  practical  educationist, 
contributed  a  trenchant  rejoinder,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  said  : — 

"  Would  it  not  be  well  for  all  of  us  to  call  to  mind 
every  morning  for  some  time  to  come,  great  a  bore 
as  it  may  be,  that  for  better  or  worse  we  are  living 
in  Ireland ;  that  most  of  us  shall  have  to  be  content 
to  remain  in  Ireland ;  that  in  Ireland  all  grades  of 
education  ought  to  be  Irish ;  and  that  whilst  the 
national  language  is  in  a  subordinate  position,  and 
not  an  essential  part  of  all  our  educational  systems, 
education  in  this  land,  for  all  our  make-believe, 
never  will  or  can  be  Irish  ?  We  may  find  it  trouble- 
some to  look  this  truth  in  the  face,  and  act  accord- 
ingly. But  we  cannot  get  rid  of  it  by  striving  to 
ignore  it.  Nor  is  it  manly  or  patriotic  to  seek  to  do 
so.  We  must  be  prepared  to  suffer  the  inconveni- 
ence entailed  by  our  past  follies.  Making  sorry 
faces,  and  bewailing  the  fatuity  of  those  who  have 

E 


146      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

gone  before  us,  will  not  help  us  to  redeem  the  past. 
To  restore  the  national  language  to  its  rightful  place 
needs  drastic  measures.  Let  us  nerve  ourselves  to 
adopt  them,  now  that  circumstances  have  become  fairly 
promising;  or  otherwise  let  us  understand  once  for 
all  that  we  are  content  to  see  the  national  language 
kept  permanently  out  of  its  own.  We  are  not 
going  to  restore  it  unless  we  decide  to  make  it  a 
necessary  part  of  education  in  all  grades,  and,  as 
soon  as  may  be,  the  common  vehicle  of  education. 
And  in  education  we  all  know  that  all  real  reform 
must  proceed  from  above  downwards.  Hence  we 
must  begin  with  the  University.   .   .   . 

"When  Ireland  was  almost  wholly  Irish- speaking 
English  was  made  the  language  of  the  national 
schools.  That,  too,  created  difficulties,  yet  the  voice 
of  protest  was  scarcely  heard  in  the  land.  [Apart 
from  Archbishop  MacHale.]  Still  earlier,  when 
Maynooth  was  established,  to  make  English,  which 
few  understood,  obligatory,  and  to  make  Irish,  which 
almost  every  one  knew,  voluntary  for  the  most  part, 
must  have  entailed  very  great  difficulties,  but  diffi- 
culties are  invariably  made  light  of  except  where 
there  is  question  of  Irish." 

At  the  beginning  of  December  matters  became 
more  interesting  and  exciting.  -  One  of  the  best- 
known  Jesuits  in  Ireland  took  the  field  against  the 
popular  ideal.  This  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  Delaney,  S.J., 
noted  in  his  ovni  way  and  sphere  as  an  educationist. 
He  was  the  chief  personality  of  what  was  called 
University  College  (Dublin),  whose  place  before  the 
new  University  scheme  came  into  operation  was  rather 
prominent.     He  had  been  nominated  a  senator  of 


PEOPLE   V.    BISHOPS  147 

the  National  University.  At  one  of  the  College 
functions  he  protested  strongly,  in  a  peculiar  speech, 
against  the  idea  of  making  Irish  essential  in  the 
new  institution.  His  points  roused  considerable 
anger  and  scorn.  He  dwelt  on  imaginary  imper- 
fections of  Irish,  and  the  equally  imaginary  "  im- 
perfect means  "  of  imparting  a  knowledge  of  it.  I 
urged  at  the  time  that  there  was  no  use  in  getting 
cross  about  these  things.  They  seemed  quaint  to 
the  well-informed,  but  they  suggested  also  how 
divided  and  segregated  we  were  still  in  Ireland. 
In  a  normal  country  the  average  man  would  know 
all  about  the  facts,  and  they  would  be  absolute 
commonplaces  to  an  eminent  educationist.  But  in 
Ireland  we  had  been  living  in  a  set  of  concentration 
camps ;  national  knowledge  was  not  a  common 
possession  and  enthusiasm ;  while  cuiTents  of  ideas 
travelled  erratically  and  partially. 

There  was  a  mingled  comedy  and  pathos  in  some 
of  the  propositions  that  Dr.  Delaney  adopted.  One 
came  to  this :  Irish  was  to  be  kept  down  in  the 
University  in  order  to  make  the  University  a  light  to 
the  world  and  attract  the  children  of  Irish  emigrants 
home  to  it.  I  pleaded  in  all  humility  that  it  was 
time  for  us  to  bend  our  best  energies  to  saving  and 
energising  the  remnant  of  a  nation  we  had  left,  and 
to  let  the  world  try  to  get  on  without  us  for  a  while. 
It  had  been  doing  a  lot  without  us,  and  somehow 
we,  for  all  our  boasting  and  moonshine,  did  not 
seem  to  count  for  much,  artistically  or  intellectually, 
anywhere.  Ireland  could  not  be  of  interest  or  value 
to  the  world  if  she  were  not  productive  and  pro- 
gressive in  and  for  herself.     The  ambitious  Jesuit 


148      THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

was  also  urged  to  ponder  on  the  great  saying  about 
gaining  the  whole  world  and  losing  one's  own  soul. 
It  applied  after  a  fashion  to  nations,  too ;  only,  so 
far  as  Ireland  was  concerned,  while  she  had  been 
losing  her  own  soul  she  had  not  been  gaining  the 
world.     She  had  been  making  a  foolish  bargain. 

Dr.  Delaney's  speech  was  one  of  some  sharp  re- 
minders to  the  country  that  a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  the  nominated  Senate  of  the  University  was 
either  hostile  or  indifferent  to  the  Irish  ideal  in  edu- 
cation. Straightway  began  the  hardest  fight  ever 
fought  in  Ireland  for  an  educational  issue.  It  was 
opened  with  a  congested  meeting  in  the  Kotunda, 
Dublin,  at  which  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde  was  supported 
by  popular  priests  like  Father  Matt  Ryan  (Munster) 
and  Father  O'Kieran  (Ulster),  and  at  which  was  read 
a  letter  from  the  Eev.  Dr.  O'Hickey,  the  Professor  of 
Irish  in  Maynooth,  containing  the  most  trenchant 
language  yet  heard  from  an  ecclesiastic.  Cablegrams 
from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Yorke  of  San  Francisco  and  from 
the  president  of  the  A.O.H.  in  the  United  States 
testified  to  the  spirit  of  Irish- America,  while  the  tele- 
grams and  letters  from  far  and  near  in  Ireland  were 
agreeably  unconventional  and  pointed.  The  clerical 
speakers  were  sharply  and  severely  critical  of  things 
that  long  had  cried  for  criticism.  Father  O'Kieran 
frankly  said  that  in  the  educational  order  Irish 
Catholics  had  been  following  blind  guides,  as  well 
as  men  who  sold  their  birthright — both  at  the  found- 
ing of  Maynooth  and  the  so-called  "  National  Educa- 
tion "  system — not  for  a  mess  of  pottage  but  in  the 
hope  of  a  mess  of  pottage  which  they  never  got. 
Dr.  O'Hickey,  a  massive  personality  in  every  way,  a 


PEOPLE   V.   BISHOPS  149 

sheer  contrast  physically  and  intellectually  to  his 
predecessor,  Father  O'Growney,  was  scathing  in  his 
strictures  on  the  "  Catholic  snobocracy "  and  the 
"  West-British  Catholic  faction  "  that  wanted  to  lay 
down  the  educational  and  other  law  for  Catholic  Ire- 
land as  a  whole.  He  handled  the  Jesuit,  Dr.  Delaney, 
with  what  some  considered  great  severity.  But  this 
was  generally  welcome,  as  feeling  had  been  rapidly 
rising  on  the  subject  of  the  Jesuits  and  their  reported 
work  behind  the  scenes.  We  gathered  that  in  Dublin 
and  outside  it  some  among  them  had  been  canvassing 
and  endeavouring  to  mould  opinion  to  Dr.  Delaney's 
view  on  the  question  of  Irish  in  the  University,  also 
that  this  was  part  of  a  large  and  subtle  policy.  It 
was  suggested  that  the  Vatican  did  not  want  a  par- 
ticularly Irish  University,  but  rather  one  whose  spirit 
and  trend  would  render  it  suitable  not  only  for  ultra- 
montane Irish  but  for  English  Catholic  students. 
The  Dublin  college  especially  was  marked  out  for  a 
great  ultramontane  centre,  drawing  its  material  from 
England  as  well  as  Ireland.  Developments  were 
interesting.  In  a  leading  article  on  the  Rotunda 
meeting  I  referred  to  the  reported  secret  efforts,  and 
noted  that  the  Jesuits  were  essentially  "  cosmopoli- 
tan" in  their  ideas,  and  had  always  disliked  and  dis- 
trusted nationality  and  the  national  spirit.  How 
much  they  also  disliked  the  development  of  will- 
power or  individuality  was  a  commonplace  of  history. 
Their  objection  to  any  spirit  of  independence  in  lay- 
men, and  their  jealousy  of  secular  priests,  were  also 
well  understood  ;  all  this  might  be  said  while  admit- 
ting their  individual  good  character  and  high  conduct. 
In  Ireland,  as  elsewhere,  I  added,  they  had  shown 


150      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

no  friendliness  for  national  ideas.  The  new  Univer- 
sity created  a  new  situation  of  far-reaching  national 
import,  as  those  subtle  and  unsleeping  observers  knew 
too  well.  This  would  explain  their  pressure  against 
a  policy  that  would  make  the  University  national  and 
productive  of  a  healthy  interest  in  the  home  land 
rather  than  a  passion  for  emigration  and  "  cosmopoli- 
tanism." They  were  powerful,  if  not  all  but  masters, 
at  Rome,  where  in  other  ages  they  were  condemned. 
Discussion  of  Jesuit  policy  and  attitude  grew 
pointed.  It  was  urged  on  one  side  that  several  young 
Jesuits  were  Irish  speakers  and  enthusiasts.  It  was 
answered  that  if  the  Jesuit  authorities  had  decided 
on  a  particular  course  in  regard  to  the  University, 
it  did  not  matter  what  young  Jesuits  had  done  or 
what  they  might  think ;  they  had  no  freedom  in  the 
matter,  unless  they  left  the  Society.^  Popular  opinion 
was  frankly  and  freely  expressed  on  the  whole  ques- 
tion. Jesuits,  English  Catholic  leaders,  or  the 
Vatican  would  not  be  permitted  to  shape  the  policy 
of  the  University.  I  learned  privately  that  the  Jesuits 
in  Dublin  were  much  perturbed  over  the  whole  affair, 
beginning  with  Dr.  Delaney's  address,  which  was  now 
admitted  to  have  been  rather  too  outspoken.  They 
shrank  from  Irish  criticism  or  even  discussion.  It 
continued ;  but  they  soon  had  comrade  subjects  of 
high  degree.     Public  meetings,  at  which  the  speech 

^  Individual  Jesuits  continue  to  do  serious  Irish  work.  The  latest 
example  is  that  of  the  Rev.  L.  MacKenna,  S.J.,  Mungret  College,  Limerick, 
who  issued  an  excellent  Irish-English  Phrase-Dictionary  in  1911,  and  was 
selected  as  the  Principal  of  the  Munster  Gaelic  College  for  1912.  The 
Rev.  John  C.  MacErlean,  S.J.,  is  editing  for  the  Irish  Texts  Society  (which 
has  published  the  first  volume)  the  poems  of  Daithi  O'Bruadair,  the  most 
noted  Irish  poet  of  a  dramatic  and  transitional  period,  the  second  half  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 


PEOPLE   V.   BISHOPS  151 

was  strong  and  plain,  were  held  up  and  down  the 
country ;  trenchant  letters  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  O'Hickey 
were  read  at  several  of  them.  There  was  much  to 
say  of  what  blunt  people  called  "  wire-pulling,"  and 
polite  people  "  diplomacy,"  behind  the  scenes.  The 
story  of  pressure  from  the  Vatican  grew  more  circum- 
stantial. It  was  said  that  much  against  their  will 
the  Vatican  and  the  English  Catholic  authorities  had 
had  to  allow  English  Catholic  youth  to  go  to  Oxford 
and  Cambridge;  if  a  "West-British  University" 
could  be  established  in  Dublin  this  permission  to 
attend  Oxford  and  Cambridge  would  be  withdrawn, 
and  the  Dublin  institution  would  be  the  recognised 
centre  for  British  Catholics.  Some  insisted  that  all 
this  was  exceedingly  improbable,  but  the  popular  out- 
burst against  the  alleged  scheme  was  suggestive. 
One  thing  of  which  there  was  no  doubt  was  that  the 
Catholic  bishops,  with  a  few  exceptions,  were  opposed 
to  the  popular  majority  on  the  essential  Irish  ques- 
tion. It  was  known  that  several  of  their  lordships 
were  very  emphatic  on  the  matter,  and  had  begun  to 
use  their  influence  to  the  utmost.  A  crucial  question 
at  the  start  was  the  attitude  of  the  County  Councils, 
empowered  to  strike  rates  in  aid  and  establish  scholar- 
ships under  the  scheme.  It  did  not  remain  long  in 
doubt.  Council  after  council  came  to  declare  that 
unless  Irish  got  its  due,  and  the  University  were  given 
a  democratic  and  progressive  trend,  no  rate  would  be 
struck.  Episcopal  and  other  ecclesiastical  influences 
were  at  work,  but  "  no  Irish,  no  rate  "  fared  farther 
and  farther  as  a  practical  motto.  Some  who  thought 
they  had  known  rural  Ireland  were  astonished. 
In  January  1909  the  Standing  Committee  of  the 


152      THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

Catholic  bishopi>  met  and  issued  a  statement  of  their 
views.    Their  lordships,  as  we  expected,  were  against 
the  idea  of  making  Irish  essential  at  matriculation, 
either  immediately  or  with  a  time-limit.     They  were 
evidently    struck,   however,    by   the    general   public 
attitude,   and  their  language  though   cold  was  not 
avowedly  hostile.    They  said — the  phrase  found  h'onic 
fame — that  the  matter  was  one  for  "fair  argument," 
and  their  own  suggestion  was  that  "  bright  centres" 
for  the  "  encouragement "  of  Irish  studies  might  be 
formed    in  the  University   Colleges;   but   they   did 
not  explain  the  process,  nor  suggest  how  University 
students  who  are  generally  taxed  sufficiently  by  the 
demands  of  essential  subjects  and  studies  could  be 
greatly  helped  by  "bright  centres"  for  others.     It 
was  also  obvious  to  all  that  if  Irish  were  not  made 
essential  at  matriculation — the  popular  demand  added 
"  and  up  to  the  point  at  which  specialisation  begins  " 
— the  language  would  not  receive  its  due  in  secondary 
and  other  institutions,  some  of  them  under  episcopal 
auspices,  and  none  of  them  under  popular  control. 
Thus  it  would  happen  that  various  students  would 
enter  the  University  knowing  little  or  no  Irish,  and 
the  first  business  in  the  "  bright  centres  "  would  be 
to  give  them  elementary  instruction  in  the  language, 
a  curious  order  in  a  university. 

The  bishops'  statement  was  grateful  and  comfort- 
ing to  the  anti-Irish  element,  the  "  Catholic  snobo- 
cracy,"  and  others.  One  of  the  combatants  made 
the  singular  unhappy  prophecy  that  the  county  coun- 
cillors and  others  would  forthwith  retire  from  their 
position  "  like  whipped  curs."  The  bishops  simply 
roused  a  storm  of  protest  and  criticism.     The  Gaelic 


PEOPLE    V.    BISHOPS  153 

League  executive  promptly  held  a  special  meeting 
and  issued  a  reply  to  their  lordships  on  every  point ; 
but  that  was  only  to  be  expected.  What  was  some- 
what unexpected  was  the  vigorous  and  candid  lan- 
guage in  the  provincial  press — the  Dublin  nationalist 
dailies  still  remained  "  on  the  fence  " — and  the  fact 
that  various  priests  who  had  not  been  extreme  in 
their  attitude  either  deplored  or  resented  the  episcopal 
document.  The  public  meetings  and  protests  went 
on  with  renewed  force,  while  socially  anti-episcopal 
criticism  and  comment  were  almost  incredibly  severe, 
especially  when  it  came  to  be  known  that  young 
priests  who  had  been  prominent  on  the  Irish  side 
were  prevented  from  further  expressing  their  views  : 
"  muzzled  "  in  popular  parlance.  Such  was  the  latest 
form  of  anti-clericalism.  The  French  judge  in  Mr. 
Dooley's  satire  first  pronounced  sentence  on  Dreyfus 
and  then  called  the  witnesses.  Irish  bishops  admitted 
that  a  public  question  was  one  for  "  fair  argument," 
and  straightway  ordered  the  young  priests  to  be 
silent.  This  time  it  was  not  wicked  laymen,  obsessed 
by  French  or  Nonconformist  notions,  but  chosen  and 
pious  prelates,  who  drove  priests  from  public  life. 
As  the  names  of  the  "  muzzled "  sagairt  were  pub- 
lished week  by  week,  the  irony  in  Dublin,  and  I 
suppose  in  the  country,  was  grim  and  mordant.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  O'Hickey  duly  shared  the  fate  of  country 
priests ;  he  was  "  suppressed  "  by  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee. Straightway  from  the  press,  in  a  thirty-two- 
paged    pamphlet,    entitled   An   Irish    University   or 

Else ,  came  the  vigorous  letters  he  had  addressed 

to    promoters    of  Dublin     and   provincial  meetings. 
With  this  in  circulation  on  all  sides  people  jested 


154      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

over  the  "  suppression."  Suppressed  the  Maynooth 
professor  spoke.  Or  if  silenced,  as  the  bishops 
thought,  his  silence  could  be  felt — acutely,  impres- 
sively felt.  All  Ireland  could  hear  him  thinking,  as 
in  folk-lore  privileged  people  hear  the  grass  growing. 
Bishops  and  their  friends  looked  with  mingled  hope 
and  fear  to  the  Convention  of  the  United  Irish  League 
held  in  Dublin  in  February.  The  United  Irish  League, 
of  course,  is  a  distinctly  political  organisation,  and 
while  it  contains  many  strenuous  and  intelligent  work- 
ers, it  includes,  in  small  towns  and  country  places,  a 
number  of  men  who,  though  Irish  in  a  general  way 
in  their  sympathies,  are  not  clear  in  their  grasp  of 
those  factors  of  nationality  which  are  deeper  than 
politics  as  it  is  usually  understood.  Their  educational 
opportunities,  their  training,  and  their  daily  struggle, 
do  not  conduce  to  such  clear  realisation  as  a  rule.  It 
was  thought  that  a  number  of  them  would  not  readily 
understand  the  whole  bearing  of  the  language  question 
and  might  be  deceived  by  the  catch-cry  about  "  com- 
pulsion," though  in  that  connection  the  sturdy  faith 
of  the  county  councillors  vras  significant.  The  usual 
subtle  "influences"  were  at  work  for  weeks  before 
the  Convention  began,  with  the  view  of  getting  a 
majority  against  a  motion  to  be  made  in  favour  of  the 
national  demand.  Apart  from  these.  Dr.  O'Donnell, 
the  Bishop  of  Raphoe,  a  power  in  the  councils  of  the 
organisation,  was  reputed  to  be  one  of  those  prelates 
most  sturdily  against  essential  Irish.  Mr.  John  Dillon, 
M.P.,  who  wanted  a  "  Catholic  University"  above  all 
things,  was  equally  thoroughgoing.  On  the  other 
hand,  Mr.  John  Redmond  was  friendly,  and  had 
helped    the    Gaelic    League    in   his   home-haunt   in 


PEOPLE   V.    BISHOPS  155 

Wicklow.  Certain  priests  known  to  be  favourable 
were  prevented  from  attending  the  Convention,  very 
noted  instances  being  related  in  the  press  at  the 
time.  Father  Malachi  Brennan,  one  of  the  ablest 
of  the  younger  priests,  was,  however,  amongst  those 
who  attended,  and  he  it  was  who  seconded,  in  a 
cogent  speech,  the  essential  Irish  resolution  pro- 
posed in  a  logical  address  by  Mr.  John  P.  Boland, 
M.P.  (Father  Malachi  has  been  a  power  in  Con- 
nacht.)  Mr.  Dillon,  to  the  manifest  disappointment 
of  the  Convention,  opposed  the  motion  in  a  speech 
of  considerable  eloquence  and  plausibility,  sometimes 
passionately,  and  sometimes  sarcastically  interrupted. 
He  dwelt  on  the  dangers  of  "  compulsion,"  using 
arguments  which  would  apply  equally  well,  or  equally 
ill,  against  the  Ten  Commandments.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde,  who  was  present  on 
Mr.  Redmond's  invitation.  The  Protestant  president 
of  Connradh  na  Gaedhilge  obtained  an  ovation  from 
a  Convention  mainly  made  up  of  farmers  and  rural 
workers,  overwhelmingly  if  not  entirely  Catholic. 
His  racy  speech  was  received  with  delight,  and  when 
the  Irish  resolution  was  put  from  the  chair,  three- 
fourths  of  the  gathering  declared  for  it,  the  Freeman 
admitted,  five-sixths  according  to  other  observers. 
The  hostile  bishops  and  their  spokesman,  Mr.  Dillon, 
were  deserted  by  rural  Catholic  voters.  That  was  the 
polite  way  of  putting  the  matter;  others  expressed 
it  more  bluntly. 

In  a  week  or  so  Cardinal  Logue  found  it  necessary 
to  take  the  defensive  in  a  long  communication  to 
the  Freeman's  Journal.  Only  at  one  point  did  he 
break  new  gi'ound.     He  did  not  help  his  brethren  in 


156      THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

any  respect,  or  affect  the  question  one  way  or  the 
other.  The  new  point  had  a  certain  suggestiveness 
and  irony.  His  Eminence  insisted  that  Rome  had 
not  pressed  or  influenced  the  bishops  in  their  recent 
action,  as  had  been  rumoured.  We  reminded  him 
that  in  point  of  fact  the  bishops  had  known  Rome's 
desires  in  the  matter  long  before,  and  no  direct 
recent  order  was  needed.  But  it  was  curiously 
ironical  to  find  the  highest  Irish  Catholic  ecclesiastic 
obliged  to  defend  the  episcopacy  against  the  charge 
or  suggestion  of  being  agents  of  Rome  in  an  Irish 
educational  struggle. 

The  University  authorities  were  not  yet  in  a 
position  to  approach  the  question.  Some  dreaded  it ; 
others  saw  in  the  popular  enthusiasm  for  Irish 
culture  a  happy  and  a  hopeful  factor;  yet  others 
who  had  no  belief  in  Irish  culture  saw  that  right 
or  wrong  a  really  popular  demand  must  be  reckoned 
with ;  yet  more  were  in  the  mood  to  resist  to  the 
last.  The  nominated  Senate  appeared  to  possess 
representatives  of  the  vital  and  progressive,  the 
awakening,  the  transitional,  the  slumberous,  the 
reactionary,  and  the  hostile  elements  in  the  country. 
The  result  in  the  Senate  itself  was  problematical. 
What  was  clear  in  the  general  situation  was  that 
the  majority  of  the  people  had  pointedly  and  even 
passionately  rejected  the  leadership  and  the  pleas  of 
the  bishops. 

At  an  early  stage,  the  LepraGd7i,  a  Dublin  comic 
paper,  had   published  an   amusing  cartoon,   entitled 

*'  The  Ram  that  Didn't  Care  a  D ."    The  "  Ram  " 

was  the  Gaelic  League,  dashing  desperately  against 
the  long  impregnable  episcopal  stronghold.     On  the 


PEOPLE   V.    BISHOPS  157 

ramparts  mitred  brows  were  calm,  episcopal  eyes 
inscrutable.  The  bleached  bones  of  "  Parnellism  " 
and  other  attacking  forces  of  old  years  studded  the 
dismal  landscape  below.  We  smiled  at  the  grim 
joke,  and  said  the  Irish  world  had  changed.  It 
had. 

"  My  friend,"  an  ecclesiastic  of  simple  heart  and 
apostolic  life  said  to  me  in  Dublin  one  day  in  the 
summer  of  this  same  year,  "  we  know  very  well  that 
the  laity  simply  must  get  what  they  really  want. 
Only  it  is  just  as  well  not  to  ask  for  it  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet." 

I  might  have  said  that  I  had  not  seen  overmuch 
of  the  "bayonet"  on  the  Irish  lay  side,  at  least  till 
lately,  while  I  had  seen  something  rather  worse  on 
the  other.  I  refrained,  however,  because  my  friend 
was  an  oversea  visitor,  too  simple  a  Christian  and 
too  long  apart  from  Ireland  to  understand  our  peculiar 
position  without  a  long  explanation.  And  I  did  not 
want  to  distress  him  anyway. 


CHAPTER  XII 

MAYNOOTH   AS   STORM-CENTRE 

Maynooth  has  served  Rome  well,  and  has  done  far 
more  than  Dublin  Castle  for  anglicisation  m  Ireland. 
As  candid  Irish  priests  admit,  those  who  believe  in 
Irish  ideas  could  easily  make  out  a  strong,  an  un- 
answerable case  against  St.  Patrick's  College,  its 
ideals  and  methods.  If  there  has  been  a  change  for 
the  better  this  century  it  is  rather  in  the  mind  and 
attitude  of  many  students  and  some  professors  than 
in  the  general  college  policy  or  that  of  the  bishops — 
and  ultimately  the  Vatican — at  the  back  of  it.  A  char- 
acter in  The  Plough  and  the  Cross,  an  expelled  student, 
thus  expressed  the  point  of  view  of  many  : — 

"  I  think  with  respectful  awe  of  its  tremendous 
scheme  of  milling  and  moulding,  in  which  all  types 
are  fashioned  into  the  one  type,  cast-ironed  as  the 
mind  of  the  Middle  Ages,  [He  had  admitted,  how- 
ever, that  during  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  of  course 
a  great  deal  of  speculation  in  places.]  Year  by  year 
Maynooth  calls  in  her  conscripts,  and  trains  them  up  to 
her  Grand  Army  standard,  and  when  they  are  trained 
she  sends  them  forth  to  post  and  outpost  to  hold  and 
regulate  the  body  and  soul  of  an  untrained  and  sub- 
missive nation.  And  the  marvel  is  how  her  Grand 
Army  believes  that  it  can  do  the  work  of  Heaven  and 
England  at  the  same  time." 

However,  though  the  official  attitude  is  unbending, 


MAYNOOTH    AS   STORM-CENTRE     159 

yet  ever  since  the  early  years  of  Father  O'Growney's 
work  there  has  been  a  brighter  and  more  Irish  spirit 
in  elements  of  Maynooth.  It  has  sent  out  thought- 
ful young  priests  to  work  zealously  with  the  people 
in  Irish  parishes,  more  of  them  to  teach  in  diocesan 
seminaries.  At  least  two  of  the  newer  bishops,  Dr. 
O'Dea,  now  of  Galway,  and  Dr.  Gilmartin,  the  Bishop 
of  Clonfert,  have  come  directly  from  its  halls  to  epis- 
copal station,  and  these  are  Irish-minded  bishops, 
with  a  social  conscience  and  impulse.  Certain  pro- 
fessors have  done  distinctive  Irish  work.  An  inter- 
esting example  is  that  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Sheehan,  an 
enthusiast  for  Greek  culture,  on  the  one  hand,  and  for 
the  surviving  Irish  lore  of  the  "Decies"  (in  Water- 
ford),  on  the  other.  He  has  been  largely  responsible 
for  the  establishment  and  the  success  of  the  Irish 
secondary  school  at  Ring,  Co.  Waterford,  and  the 
summer  training  college  in  the  same  haunt.  With 
his  friends  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henebry,  once  of  the  Catholic 
University  of  America,  Padraig  O'Cadhla,  "  An  Fear 
Mor,"  and  others,  he  teaches  in  the  college  in  his 
holiday  term.  He  has  published  three  collections  of 
local  lore :  stories,  proverbs,  prayers,  &c.,  faithfully 
taken  down  from  the  people.  Such  work  is  one  of 
the  factors  that  tend  to  keep  the  new  Irish  writing 
racy  of  the  soil,  though  in  "Decies"  lore  there  is 
often  a  sense  of  classic  Irish  style  as  well  as  raciness. 
The  Irish  writing  of  Padraig  O'Dalaigh,  the  genial 
giant  who  is  general  secretary  of  the  Gaelic  League, 
and  hails  from  that  region,  often  reminds  us  of  the  fact. 
As  for  the  Maynooth  students  they  have  had  the 
League  of  St.  Columba,  which  might  be  described  as 
a  Maynooth  Gaelic  League.     A  Columban  Leaguer, 


160      THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

within  or  without  the  college,  stands  for  a  rather  new 
type  of  student  or  priest.  The  League  has  trained  a 
number  of  Irish  speakers  and  some  Irish  writers,  pro- 
duced Irish  plays,  published  a  bi-lingual  annual,  and 
some  volumes  of  Irish  sermons,  selected  from  manu- 
script collections  in  the  college.  Its  name  and  work 
had  for  a  long  time  been  honoured  throughout 
Ireland,  and  therefore  quite  a  sensation  was  caused 
in  the  middle  of  June  1909,  by  the  news  that  the 
members  of  the  committee  were  to  be  punished  for 
the  sending  of  a  telegram  of  sympathy  to  a  great 
meeting  of  lay  students  in  the  Dublin  Mansion  House 
in  favour  of  essential  Irish  in  the  University  and  for 
general  support  of  the  national  demand.  More 
extraordinary  still,  the  punishment,  it  was  stated, 
was  to  take  the  form  of  deprivation  of  orders ! 
Another  amazing  piece  of  intelligence  was  that  the 
president  had  lodged  a  complaint  against  the  pro- 
fessors who  had  taken  part  in  the  University  agitation, 
and  had  asked  the  bishops  to  pass,  in  their  capacity 
of  trustees,  a  resolution  forbidding  professors  or 
students  to  publish  any  secular  matter  before  submit- 
ting it  to  himself.  Obviously  so  antiquated  and 
reactionary  a  course  would  have  the  effect  of  driving 
all  independent  thought,  and  all  men  worth  having, 
out  of  Maynooth.  When  we  published  the  points  in 
the  Irish  Nation  on  the  eve  of  the  bishops'  meeting 
many  thought  both  stories  incredible. 

In  the  result  some  half-dozen  Columban  Leaguers 
were  refused  sub-deaconships  or  deaconships,  and 
though  it  was  understood  that  the  deprivation  would 
be  but  temporary,  it  occasioned  strong  feeling  within 
and  without  Maynooth.    One  student  of  high  char- 


MAYNOOTH   AS   STORM-CENTRE     161 

acter  and  untiring  Irish  work  was  denied  ordination 
to  the  priesthood  in  the  college,  and  though  he  was 
subsequently  ordained  in  his  own  diocese  by  his 
bishop,  his  treatment  caused  considerable  criticism. 
The  prelates  drew  the  line  at  the  application  of  the 
president  for  autocratic  powers  of  censorship — the 
pre-publication  of  the  application  and  the  lively  out- 
side comment  had  spoiled  the  scheme.  But  all  these 
things  were  promptly  overshadowed  by  a  new  sensa- 
tion :  the  dismissal,  or  the  threatened  dismissal,  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  O'Hickey,  the  Professor  of  Irish. 

Dr.  O'Hickey  was  first  called  before  a  committee, 
or  representatives,  of  the  "  Visitors,"  one  of  whom 
was  Cardinal  Logue.  The  Cardinal  broached  the  sub- 
ject of  the  already  famous  pamphlet,  An  Irish  Uni- 
versity/ or  Else ,  a  collection  of  letters  practically 

all  of  which  were  written  and  read  at  public  meetings 
before  the  statement  (or  manifesto)  of  the  Standing 
Committee  was  issued.  Dr.  O'Hickey  said  that  he  had 
written  therein  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  and 
to  be  his  duty  to  write,  and  that  his  opinion  on  the 
whole  matter  had  undergone  no  change  whatever. 
The  Cardinal  told  him  that  the  trustees  of  Maynooth 
(that  is  to  say,  the  bishops)  would  pass  a  resolution 
depriving  him  of  his  Irish  chair  in  the  college.  The 
same  intelligence  was  conveyed  to  him  when  he  duly 
appeared  before  the  episcopal  trustees  at  their  formal 
meeting.  However,  the  bishops,  or  some  of  them, 
were  anxious  to  induce  Dr.  O'Hickey  to  save  them 
the  extreme  step  of  openly  driving  him  away.  He 
was  asked  if  he  would  resign,  or  if  he  would  go  on 
the  mission  in  his  native  diocese  of  Waterford  and 
Lismore,^  whose  bishop  was  sympathetic  and,  on  his 


162      THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

own  merits,  quite  anxious  to  have  Dr.  O'Hickey. 
Dr.  O'Hickey  declined  to  resign  his  position  as  Pro- 
fessor of  Irish,  and  said  that  while  he  held  that  post 
he  could  not  go,  of  course,  on  the  mission.  Hence 
there  seemed  no  alternative  but  the  carrying  out  of 
the  expressed  design  to  dismiss  him — that  of  which 
the  Cardinal  had  given  him  notice.  When  the  pro- 
fessor left  the  bishops  he  was  under  the  impression 
that  he  had  been  dismissed.  Certain  prelates  had 
believed,  we  were  told,  that  the  threat  to  deprive  him 
of  his  livehhood  would  cause  him  to  apologise  ;  others 
were  sure  that  he  would  resign  at  any  rate.  The 
bishops  misjudged  their  man,  as  they  misjudged  other 
men  and  things  in  the  Ireland  that  had  come  to  think 
for  herself.  When  the  final  decision  could  no  longer 
be  delayed,  they  went  back  on  the  bold  message  of 
the  Cardinal.  They  were  content  to  pass  a  resolu- 
tion caUing  on  Dr.  O'Hickey  to  resign.  This  he 
declined  to  do,  and  there  the  matter  rested  for  a  time, 
while  a  storm  of  criticism  swept  upon  the  bishops — 
from  public  meeting  after  meeting,  through  weekly 
papers  such  as  the  Irish  Nation,  An  Claidheamh 
Solids,  and  Sinn  Fein,  and  the  provincial  press ;  but 
the  Dublin  dailies  maintained  a  ''  diplomatic  "  peace 
as  usual,  at  any  rate  editorially. 

It  was  thought  that  Dr.  O'Hickey's  mind  could  be 
made  up  for  him.  On  the  day  succeeding  the  bishops' 
meeting,  the  story  that  he  had  resigned  was  circu- 
lated. The  Irish  Times  was  the  fii'st  of  the  Dublin 
dailies  to  print  it,  the  Nationalist  dailies  followed 
suit.  Dr.  O'Hickey  wrote  promptly  to  characterise 
the  statement  as  "  a  baseless  fabrication."  The  Irish 
Times  fi-ankly  apologised  and — quite  justly — "  gave 


MAYNOOTH   AS    STORM-CENTRE     163 

the  show  away,"  in  common  parlance,  by  declaring 
that  the  information  had  come  to  it  from  "  a  high 
official  in  Maynooth."  That  Maynooth  had  a  high 
official  who  could  spread  an  unfounded  story  about 
a  Doctor  of  Divinity  was  a  fact  that  saddened  not  a 
few  Maynoothmen,  and  was  curious  news  to  "  anti- 
clerics  "  near  and  far. 

The  bishops  were  in  something  of  a  quandary.  At 
last,  after  a  month's  consideration,  they  held  a  special 
meeting,  and  really  dismissed  Dr.  O'Hickey.  That 
in  their  capacity  of  Maynooth  trustees  they  had  any 
right  whatever  to  dismiss  a  competent  and  devoted 
professor  for  utterances  on  a  national  question  uncon- 
nected with  his  duties — a  question  their  own  Stand- 
ing Committee  had  declared  to  be  a  matter  for  "  fair 
argument" — Irish  observers  denied.  Dr.  O'Hickey 
forthwith  began  the  prolonged  procedure  of  an  appeal 
to  K-ome.^  This  necessarily  debarred  him  personally 
from  taking  further  part  in  the  fray,  but  the  dismissal 
added  fire  and  force  to  the  criticism  against  the 
bishops  and  intensified  the  general  agitation. 

Dr.  O'Hickey  and  the  students  were  not  the  only 
people  penalised  by  their  lordships  during  that  tense 
summer  spell.  The  priests  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Dunboyne  Establishment,  Maynooth,  had  also  sent, 
like  the  Columban  Leaguers,  a  telegram  of  sympathy 
to  the  meeting  of  lay  students  in  Dublin.  They 
could  not  be  deprived  of  orders,  but  they  did  not 
escape  episcopal  attention.  The  decision  was  that 
there  would  be  no  Dunboyne  House  course  for  a 
year.     The  young  priests  who  expected  to  be  left  there 

^  So  far  as  was  known  in  Ireland  no  decision  had  been  reached  at  the 
beginning  of  January  1912. 


164      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

for  a  third  year  had  to  depart,  and  those  who  expected 
to  enter  it  were  barred.  For  the  time  Dunboyne 
House  was  to  be  a  name  and  a  memory  and  no 
more.  Some  such  development,  or  worse,  had  been 
expected  at  far  earlier  stages,  when  the  bishops 
were  uneasy  about  the  national  and  intellectual  spirit 
in  Maynooth.  I  had  been  urged  at  one  difficult 
period  to  refer  as  little  as  possible  to  the  support 
and  favour  which  our  paper  and  its  teachings  found 
in  Young  Maynooth ;  the  suppression  of  Dunboyne 
House  might  be  one  of  the  immediate  consequences 
of  further  trouble  with  the  authorities.  And  now  it 
ivas  suppressed  for  a  period. 

The  Irish  Nation  said  the  time  had  come  to  let 
the  bishops  know,  not  violently  but  squarely  and 
unmistakably,  that  the  days  when  they  held  the  Irish 
nation  in  the  hollow  of  their  hands,  or  could  knock 
independent-minded  men  on  the  head  with  impunity, 
were  as  dead  as  the  Middle  Ages.  Now  the  serious 
"  anti-clerics "  were  those  who  dwelt  in  "  palaces," 
and  they  wanted  to  penalise  priests  for  endeavouring 
to  be  Irishmen.  But  the  Catholic  laity  did  not  mean 
to  stand  any  of  these  things.  And  the  Catholic 
laity  had  begun  to  understand  that  in  the  last  resort 
they  controlled  the  situation,  and  when  they  became 
fully  conscious  of  the  fact  there  would  be  no  more 
episcopal  autocrats.  They  would  be  content  to  be 
bishops,  not  grasping  at  a  worldly  dominance,  but 
endeavouring  to  spread  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  by 
example  quite  as  much  as  by  precept. 

Contributors  took  up  the  question.  We  published 
a  series  of  articles  on  "  The  Nation  and  the  Election 
of  Bishops."     F.  O'Cinn^ide  (brother  of  Mr.  Bart 


MAYNOOTH   AS   STORM-CENTRE     165 

Kennedy),  a  member  of  the  executive  of  the  Gaelic 
League,  but  bolder  in  most  things  than  the  majority 
of  his  colleagues,  wrote  {Irish  Nation,  July  17, 
1909):— 

"It  is  high  time  that  we  bestirred  ourselves,  and 
began  to  teach  their  lordships  a  few  ancient  moss- 
grown  truths  that  they  appear  to  be  forgetting.  One 
is  that  they  are  not  the  Church,  but  only  a  part  thereof. 
.  ,  ,  We  have  a  right  to  a  voice  in  many  Church 
affairs,  even  including  the  election  of  bishops.  At 
present  the  only  Church  affair  we  are  allowed  to 
take  part  in  is  the  providing  of  funds.  With  this 
solitary  exception  all  our  ecclesiastical  rights  have 
been  filched  from  us  by  the  clergy,  and  not  only  that, 
but  for  a  long  time  back  our  secular  rights  are  being 
usurped  by  the  same  section  of  the  Church.  .  .  . 
What  we  want  to  do  is  to  let  the  Pope  understand 
that  we  will  accept  no  bishop  who  is  known  to  be  an 
enemy  to  Ireland,  or  suspected  of  being  antagonistic 
to  Irish  aspirations.  We  must  demand  a  veto  on 
future  appointments  to  episcopal  offices  in  Ireland. 
Our  ancient  right  was  to  elect  bishops  ourselves.  A 
veto  on  their  election  will  do  in  these  days.  Every 
nation  [or  '  State ']  has  this  veto.  Some  have  even 
a  veto  in  the  election  to  the  Papacy  itself.  The 
Pope  could  not  treat  any  other  nation  in  this  matter 
as  he  treats  Ireland.  No  other  nation  would  allow 
him  .  .  .  Then  we  should  in  time  have  truly  national 
bishops  in  Ireland,  who  would  support  everything 
Irish  and  try  to  build  up  the  nation.  The  excellent 
priests  who  are  now  muzzled  or  kept  in  inferior 
positions  by  Roman  and  English  influences  would  in 
due   course  receive  their  legitimate  position  in  our 


166      THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

Church.  The  episcopate  itself  would  thus  become 
really  and  truly  '  illustrious,'  as  it  would  no  longer 
be  recruited  from  that  section  of  the  priesthood 
which  rejects  nationality,  but  would  be  open  to  all 
priests  of  learning  and  capacity  and  generous  in- 
stincts. In  time  the  long-faded  glory  of  the  Irish 
Church  would  be  revived," 

As  a  specimen  of  clerical  plain  speaking  I  may 
refer  to  the  speech  of  Father  O'Kieran,  P.P.,  at  the 
Monaghan  Feis — these  great  gatherings  were  not 
only  literary,  musical,  and  social  rallies,  but  pro- 
vided a  sort  of  popular  congress.  Father  O'Kieran 
(as  described  in  the  local  press,  and  in  the  Irish 
Nation  of  July  10,  1909)  first  referred  to  the 
necessity  of  making  the  University  democratic,  and 
to  the  lever  which  essential  Irish  would  afford  "the 
poor  man's  son."  He  then  declared  that  "  the 
bishops  of  Ireland  had  no  right  to  tell  the  whole 
Irish  nation  that  they  would  not  tolerate  essential 
Irish  in  this  Irish  University.  The  bishops  would 
not  pay  for  the  University.  It  would  be  paid  for  out 
of  the  pockets  of  the  people  and  out  of  the  country 
rates,  and  every  man  and  woman  had  as  much  right 
to  have  a  say  about  what  language  his  or  her 
children  would  be  taught  as  the  bishops  had.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  if  the  bishops  of  Ireland  were 
a  little  less  blind,  they  would  see  not  merely  that 
the  thing  (they  advocated)  was  not  in  the  interests 
of  religion,  but  that  it  was  directly  against  the 
interests  of  religion." 

At  this  stage  the  older  ecclesiastics,  and  several 
of  the  younger  ones,  were  amazed  by  a  new  project 
that  began  to  be  discussed.     This  was :  that  in  the 


MAYNOOTH   AS    STORM-CENTRE     167 

event  of  the  national  demand  being  rejected  by 
the  senators  of  the  "  National,"  Catholics  should 
send  their  sons  to  Trinity  College,  Dublin — against 
which  prelates  had  warned  them  for  generations.  It 
was  urged  that  T.C.D.  authorities  had  become  more 
friendly  to  Ireland  and  Irish  ideas,  and  would  doubt- 
less go  much  further  on  the  path.  Why  should  not 
Catholics  make  themselves  as  much  at  home  with 
Trinity  Protestants  as  Protestants  like  Dr.  Hyde  and 
others  had  done  with  themselves  in  the  Gaelic 
League?  Padraig  O'Shea,  well  known  to  Irish 
readers  as  "  Conan  Maol,"  was  one  of  those  who 
advocated  the  "Bridge  to  Trinity"  in  the  Irish 
Nation.  There  was  no  doubt  of  "  Conan's  "  Catho- 
licity, and  he  was  a  popular  personality.  He  had 
published  Irish  history  and  stories  whose  style  was 
stronger,  sterner,  more  individual,  more  reserved  than 
that  of  most  of  the  new  writers ;  it  seemed  the  style 
of  one  who  brooded  and  talked  to  himself  of  austere, 
uncommon,  or  trying  things  rather  than  spoke  out 
his  heart  to  an  audience.  And  as  a  public  speaker 
his  virility  was  varied  by  a  humour  strangely  com- 
pounded of  acidity,  raciness,  and  frivolity.  This 
time,  however,  he  was  in  deadly  earnest. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  more  Catholic  students  had 
begun  to  enter  Trinity  College.  The  enmity  or 
coldness  between  T.C.D.  and  the  Gaelic  League 
itself  had  been  softening  for  some  time.  In  earlier 
years  there  had  been  vehement  frays  between  Trinity 
professors  and  Leaguers  over  the  historic  Irish  nation, 
Gaelic  culture,  and  other  things.  The  passion  and 
the  language  had  been  explosive.  But  if  a  poet  and 
a  philosopher  crash  against  each  other  in  a  crowded 


168      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

street  their  moods  and  language  for  the  moment  are 
unlikely  to  be  poetical  and  philosophical.  They  may 
even  swear  a  little.  They  discover  their  affinity 
afterwards.  Some  Trinity  professors  and  several 
Leaguers  discovered  in  due  course  that  they  had 
a  certain  kinship  in  their  love  both  of  culture  and 
of  freedom  of  thought.  Eventually  a  Gaelic  Society 
was  established  in  Trinity,  and  its  work  has  been 
good.  Li  other  happy  ways  the  long  alien  institution 
seemed  to  turn  more  kindly  to  Ireland.  In  1909 
Dr.  Traill,  its  Provost,  personally  friendly  to  Irish, 
brought  a  flash  of  enlivening  light  into  our  lives  by 
the  earnest  proposal  that  those  who  shrank  for  any 
reason  from  Irish  in  certain  of  our  educational  courses 
might  have  Esperanto  and  welcome  as  an  alternative. 
Professors  of  Trinity  lapsed  into  unacademic  levity 
in  discussing  the  scheme,  and  the  Commissioners  of 
Irish  primary  education  were  not  quite  respectful. 
Outsiders  saw  Cervantic  possibilities  in  the  devotion 
of  "Don  Traill"  to  the  "Lady  Esperanto,"  and  the 
Provost  had  the  pleasure  of  observing  that  the  Irish 
imagination  was  still  at  least  facetiously  creative. 

The  University  battle  continued  for  another  year, 
the  popular  spirit  as  intense  as  ever,  while  many  of 
the  lay  and  clerical  senators  of  the  National  Univer- 
sity found  it  exceedingly  difficult  to  make  up  their 
minds.  The  first  serious  trial  came  on  the  5th  of 
May  1910,  when  the  Senate  accepted  the  proposal  of 
the  Academic  Council  that  five  subjects  for  matricula- 
tion could  be  selected  out  of  as  many  groups  (modern 
Irish  was  one  of  the  items  in  each  of  two  groups), 
and  then  after  a  battle  royal  adopted  a  rider  to  the 
effect  that  Irish-born  students  who  did  not  take  Irish 


MAYNOOTH   AS   STORM-CENTRE     169 

at  matriculation  should  be  required,  during  the  under- 
graduate course,  to  attend  the  Irish  Language,  Irish 
History,  and  Irish  Literatui'e  lectures,  and  duly  satisfy 
the  Irish  professors  (Dr.  Hyde,  Eoin  MacNeill,  &c.) 
as  to  their  knowledge  in  these  lines.  The  rider  was 
only  carried  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  chairman.  Dr. 
Walsh,  Catholic  Ai'chbishop  of  Dublin,  one  of  the 
few  prelates  inclined  to  be  friendly  from  the  outset, 
though  he  kept  his  own  counsel.  This  decision  of 
itself  would  not  satisfy  the  councils  or  the  people,  but 
it  was  understood  as  being  intended  only  for  the  first 
few  years,  after  which  period  of  readjustment  the 
secondary  schools  and  colleges  would  be  in  a  more 
satisfactory  position  from  the  Irish  point  of  view. 
During  the  next  couple  of  months  the  Senate,  helped 
by  public  criticism  and  pressure,  underwent  a  change 
of  spirit,  and  at  its  meeting  on  the  23rd  of  June, 
Dr.  Hyde's  resolution  that  Irish  be  essential  or  obli- 
gatory at  matriculation  in  1913  was  carried  by  twenty- 
one  votes  to  twelve.  So  the  saga  was  over  and  the 
Gael  was  victor.  Once  again  an  Idea  had  brought 
the  mighty  low,  and  dreamers  of  dreams  had  proved 
stronger  than  an  army  with  banners. 

It  had  been  a  dramatic  struggle  of  two  crowded 
years,  a  struggle  in  which  those  who  had  a  high  faith 
in  Ireland  and  her  capacities  and  resources  fought 
with  pessimists  and  formalists,  principalities  and 
powers,  that  had  not.  At  the  outset,  taking  the 
"  practical "  view,  the  odds  against  the  national  edu- 
cationists were  overwhelming.  Wiseacres  scorned 
the  notion  that  the  "common  people"  could  be 
aroused  on  such  an  issue,  especially  with  the  bishops 
as  a  whole  against  them,  or  that  three-fourths  of 


170      THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

Ireland  had  heart  or  soul  for  any  high  emprise  what- 
ever. Yet  it  was  essentially  a  people's  battle  and  a 
people's  victory.  After  long  rigidity  and  stagnation, 
one  could  feel  that  native  mind  had  been  released 
and  had  become  in  a  measure  creative.  The  masses 
saw  themselves  and  Ireland  in  a  new  light.  That 
was  the  charm  of  it ;  thus  came  surprises.  Incident- 
ally the  campaign  was  full  of  colour  and  character, 
for  happily  the  opposing  forces  numbered  powerful 
personalities  who  put  forth  all  their  might.  So  we 
never  lacked  drama.  But  the  deeper  appeal  of  it  all 
was  the  new  feeling  in  the  people,  the  electric  sense 
at  meeting  and  festival,  the  spell  that  made  Ireland 
seem  more  human  and  more  spacious.  We  had  been 
tilling  more  of  the  Untilled  Fields  than  we  knew. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

AN  ARCHIEPISCOPAL   PINCH    OF   SNUFF 

In  1909  in  the  midst  of  the  general  University  struggle, 
Dr.  Healy,  the  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  was  the  hero,  or 
one  of  the  heroes,  of  a  fray  that  had  piquant  as  well 
as  strenuous  phases.  I  am  afraid  that  there  are 
Catholic  laymen,  and  even  priests,  who  cannot  resist 
the  temptation  to  have  a  brush  witli  his  Grace  when 
opportunity  offers,  and  as  the  battle  proceeds  their 
enjoyment  is  almost  wicked.  Dr.  Healy  is  a  very 
human  and  challenging  personality,  a  bonny  fighter 
when  he  is  roused,  and  he  affords  a  sense  of  largeness 
to  the  ensuing  struggle.  A  young  Irish  priest  once 
told  me  on  returning  from  a  visit  to  America  that 
Mr.  Roosevelt  impelled  him  to  believe  in  the  trans- 
migration of  souls  ;  he  was  sure  that  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
body  held  the  soul  of  a  positive  and  combative  Irish 
parish  priest.  To  some  minds,  on  the  other  hand, 
Archbishop  Healy  might  be  an  argument  for  re- 
incarnation ;  they  would  see  in  him  the  re-embodi- 
ment of  one  of  the  old  king-archbishops  who  when 
duty  called,  or  seemed  to  call,  left  the  sacerdotal 
sphere  for  the  battlefield.  These,  of  course,  are  less 
clangorous  and  less  thrilling  times,  and  the  "  field," 
though  exciting,  is  only  martial  metaphorically  speak- 
ing. Dr.  Healy,  however,  gives  it  a  suggestion  of 
distinction.  He  is  a  big  man  in  more  ways  than  one  ; 
the  most  towering,  vital,  and  irrepressible  personality 


172     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

amongst  the  Irish  Catholic  episcopacy,  the  one  who 
brings  it  "  into  touch  "  with  life  at  most  points.  He 
has  achieved  things  in  the  study — including  a  big 
book  on  Ireland's  ancient  schools  and  scholars — as 
well  as  in  outer  spheres,  and  he  has  social  amenities. 
No  other  prelate  is  more  at  home  or  unbends  so  much 
at  the  festive  board.  He  expresses  unpopular  poUtical 
views  and  tells  the  masses  sharp  social  truths  on  occa- 
sion. He  occupies  a  curious  position,  not  easy  to 
explain,  between  popularity  and  unpopularity. 

It  was  understood  at  an  early  stage  that  he  was 
one  of  the  strongest  episcopal  opponents  of  essential 
Irish  in  the  National  University.  It  was  stated,  and 
the  statement  was  not  contradicted,  that  the  priests 
of  the  local  college  (St.  Jarlath's)  were,  in  popular 
parlance,  "  muzzled  "  on  the  matter.  In  the  circum- 
stances the  decision  to  hold  a  pubhc  meeting  in  Tuam 
— at  his  door,  so  to  say — in  favour  of  the  national 
demand,  was  regarded  as  an  "  unfriendly  act."  It 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  imposing  demonstra- 
tions of  the  year.  A  multitude  mustered,  Tuam  had 
a  gala  day,  the  athletic-minded  began  with  Gaehc 
games,  and  at  the  great  pubhc  meeting  emphatic 
things  were  said  about  the  people's  will  and  its  op- 
ponents, things  that  seemed,  and  were  meant,  to 
apply  very  near  home. 

A  httle  later  came  the  archbishop's  turn,  or  one  of 
them.  In  an  address  at  Claremorris,  of  which  a  great 
deal  was  heard  at  the  time,  he  declared  amongst 
other  things,  according  to  the  report  in  a  local  paper  : 
"  There  were  people  in  Ireland  now  who  taught  young 
men  not  to  care  for  the  Pope,  or  the  bishops,  or  the 
priests,  or  their  authority.  They  were  taught  to  be 
independent — but  independent  agents  to  the  devil — 


A   PINCH   OF   SNUFF  173 

and  he  warned  the  faithful  to  be  on  their  guard 
against  them."  It  was  made  very  plain,  however,  that 
in  various  matters  a  good  many  of  the  faithful  had 
learned  to  think  for  themselves,  devil  or  no  devil. 

Then  came  a  surprise  and  a  storm  over  the  Gaelic 
Training  College  at  Mount  Partry  in  Co.  Mayo,  one 
of  the  most  popular  of  the  summer  institutions  for 
the  training  of  teachers  of  Irish  in  modern  methods. 
These  colleges,  partly  financed  by  the  executive  of 
the  Gaelic  League,  partly  by  local  and  general  con- 
tributions, are  managed  in  a  democratic  way  by 
mixed  committees  of  lay  and  clerical  supporters. 
The  death  of  the  Ard-Ollamh,  or  principal  teacher, 
the  young  Irish  writer,  Micheal  Breathnach,  rendered 
a  new  appointment  necessary  in  1909.  Mount  Partry 
is  in  the  archdiocese  of  Tuam,  and  the  archbishop 
owned  the  building,  and  had  a  place  on  the  com- 
mittee. Dr.  Healy  and  the  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee differed  at  first  over  the  choice  of  the  new 
Principal,  or  rather,  while  they  had  no  objection  to 
Padraig  O'Domhnallain,  the  applicant  he  favoured, 
who  was  thoroughly  competent  and  popular,  they 
objected  to  the  fact  that  the  archbishop  as  chairman 
ruled  out,  as  technically  he  was  entitled  to  do,  another 
prominent  Gael,  Dr.  J.  P.  Henry,  who  had  not  for- 
mally applied,  but  who,  in  their  opinion,  ought  to  be 
given  the  position.  After  a  pointed  discussion,  the 
archbishop  declared,  according  to  shorthand  notes 
taken  at  the  time  :  "  That  college  is  mine,  and  I  can 
do  what  I  like  with  it.  I  will  appoint  him  [the 
Principal]  myself  and  send  my  own  teachers  to  it."" 
It  was  an  interesting  position.  His  Grace  owned 
the  material  building,  or  held  it  in  trust,  while  the 
committee  members   insisted   that  they  owned  and 


174     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

controlled  the  "  college,"  which  mattered.  The  exo- 
teric and  esoteric  view  again  !  Nor  was  that  the  only 
trouble.  When  a  resolution  in  favour  of  essential 
Irish  in  the  National  University  was  brought  forward 
by  Colonel  Moore  (brother  of  Mr.  George  Moore)  Dr. 
Healy  refused  to  take  it.  "  I'll  refuse  to  take  any 
resolution  on  the  question,"  he  said.  "  I  could  not 
be  a  loyal  bishop  and  do  so,  and  I  don't  see  how 
any  priest  who  supports  such  a  resolution  can  con- 
sider himself  a  loyal  priest.  The  bishops  of  Ireland 
have  spoken  on  the  point,  and  their  decision 
binds." 

Colonel  Moore  reminded  him  that  even  the  bishops 
had  said  it  was  a  matter  for  fair  discussion.  Dr.  Healy 
answered  that  "  it  was  a  matter  for  fair  discussion 
before  they  spoke."  A  very  singular  answer  indeed, 
as  it  seemed  to  mean  :  "  In  a  certain  pronouncement 
the  bishops  say  a  certain  question  is  a  matter  for 
fair  discussion,  but  there  and  then  it  ceases  to  be 
even  open  to  discussion."  A  little  later  Colonel 
Moore  said  :  "  Besides  that,  the  people  of  Ireland 
have  spoken  with  no  uncertain  voice  in  favour  of 
Irish,  and  their  opinions  should  be  respected."  His 
Grace  :  "  The  People  of  Ireland  indeed  !  What  do 
they  know  about  it  ?  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that 
the  fellows  that  kicked  football  here  a  few  days  ago 
[the  committee  meeting  was  in  Tuam],  and  held  a 
meeting  here,  knew  or  understood  what  they  were 
talking  about  ?  I  would  not  give  a  pinch  of  snufi 
for  their  opinion." 

Quite  a  furore  was  caused  on  the  publication  of 
these  details.  The  executive  of  the  Gaelic  League 
declared  that  it  would  make  no  contribution  to  the 
funds  of  the  college,  and   could  not  recognise  its 


A   PINCH    OF   SNUFF  175 

certificates  if  it  were  admitted  to  be  a  private  institu- 
tion— that  is  to  say,  one  in  the  hands  of  the  arch- 
bishop and  not  democratically  governed  and  directed 
— protests  arose  from  subscribers  and  supporters,  the 
archbishop's  claim  that  he  owned  the  "  college,"  as 
distinct  from  the  building,  was  stoutly  denied,  and 
the  question  of  transferring  the  institution,  the 
scholastic  entity,  to  a  new  quarter  was  quickly  taken 
into  consideration.  The  necessity,  however,  did  not 
arise.  The  air  gradually  cleared  after  the  storm.  At 
its  next  meeting  the  committee  decided  that  the 
power  of  appointment  of  teachers  and  the  fixing  of 
the  courses  of  study  must  rest  with  itself  in  the  future 
as  they  had  done  in  the  past,  while  the  archbishop 
could  have  "  moral  and  disciplinary  control  over  the 
college"  and  welcome.  Some  outsiders  thought  the 
latter  point  rather  weak,  to  others  it  was  vague  or 
puzzling.  In  practice  it  meant  nothing  in  particular. 
Dr.  Healy  was  apparently  relieved  by  the  decision 
and  the  way  out  of  the  crisis,  especially  as  he  and 
the  committee  were  now  at  one  regarding  the  Prin- 
cipal— Dr.  Henry  had  declined  to  go  forward.  It 
was  understood  that  his  Grace  had  been  quite  as- 
tonished over  the  popular  outburst.  He  possibly 
assumed  that  the  "  independent  agents  to  the  devil  " 
had  increased.  As  for  the  College,  when  it  became 
clear  that  it  was  to  be  really  free  and  democratic  as 
before,  new  students  flocked  to  it ;  indeed,  the  ensuing 
session  was  a  record  one,  and  bright  and  vivacious 
were  the  tales  and  tidings  which  we  in  Dublin  received 
from  some  who  rounded  culture  with  gaiety  away  in 
pleasant  Partry  by  the  waters  of  Loch  Mask.  Clerical 
students,  no  less  than  lay,  wrote  sometimes  with  a 
delicate  airiness  on  the  subject  of  the  good  deeds  of 


176     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

archbishops.     Even  the  bards  intervened.     I  recall 
one  stanza  : — 

"  He  thought  he  saw  a  prelate  take 
A  pinch  of  snuff  at  Tuam, 
He  looked  again  and  found  it  was 

A  Connacht  College  '  boom.' 
'  We're  up  to  snuff,'  the  OUamh  said, 
And  built  another  room  !  " 

There  was  no  airiness,  however,  in  the  popular 
answer  to  Archbishop  Healy's  comphments  regarding 
essential  Irish  and  the  opinion  of  the  people.  It 
was  all  in  hot  and  deadly  earnest,  though  some  of  us 
tried  to  make  the  "  Pinch  of  Snuff,"  which  became 
famous  in  its  way,  a  sort  of  reheving  distraction. 
The  whole  tale  was  spread  through  Irish- America  in 
due  course,  and  priests  from  the  archdiocese  of  Tuam 
who  were  out  on  collecting  missions  on  behalf  of  home 
churches  and  other  wants  found  the  ordeal  of  life 
intensified. 

Amongst  the  columns  of  criticism  and  comment 
which  I  published  after  the  committee  episode  was 
a  suggestive  short  article  from  the  late  Father  George 
Tjnrrell.  A  "  Layman  "  had  urged  that  Dr.  Healy's 
action  was  calculated  to  arouse  real  anti-clericalism. 
Whereupon,  in  the  Irish  Nation  of  March  27, 
1909,  over  the  signature  "  Exul.,"  Father  Tyrrell 
wrote  : — 

"  There  is  much  wisdom  in  '  Layman's '  letter 
(March  20th)  on  Archbishop  Healy's  anti-clericahsm. 
I  have  constantly  heard  it  said,  both  by  those  who 
hope  for  and  those  who  fear  such  an  issue,  that 
should  Ireland  become  anti-clerical  she  wiU  go  the 
way  of  France — only  faster.     God  forbid  !     And  I 


A   PINCH   OF   SNUFF  177 

say  this,  not  from  hostility  to  France,  which  I  love, 
but  from  grief  at  her  religious  condition,  which  I 
deplore  because  I  love  her.  It  is  my  firm  conviction 
that,  though  distinct,  religion  and  patriotism  are 
closely  allied,  and  that  a  strong  and  healthy  patriotism 
must  be  rooted  in  idealism,  mysticism,  and  religion. 
The  cause  of  our  country  must  be  for  us  the  cause  of 
our  God,  if  it  is  to  inspire  our  deepest  enthusiasm 
and  incite  us  to  the  noblest  self-sacrifice.  Nor  is 
there  any  Chauvinism  in  speaking  thus  of  the  God 
of  Ireland  as  though  He  were  other  than  the  God 
of  France  and  England.  He  is  the  special  God  of 
every  man  and  of  every  nation,  just  so  far  as  their 
cause  is  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice  ;  and  to  call 
Him  the  God  of  Ireland  is  only  to  express  our  behef 
that  our  cause  is  right  and  that  therefore  it  is  His 
cause.  The  misery  of  France  and  of  other  Latin 
nations  is  that  they  have  been  so  long  educated  to 
identify  the  cause  of  clericalism  with  that  of  religion, 
Christianity,  and  Catholicism,  that  in  revolting  (on 
what  are  at  root  religious  principles)  against  the 
former  they  have  revolted  against  the  latter  ;  and, 
in  so  doing,  have  cut  off  the  mystical  sources  of 
patriotism  and  other  ideals.  Extremes  create  one 
another.  Clericalism — the  exploitation  of  religion 
in  the  temporal  and  political  interests  of  the  clergy 
or  their  masters — is  responsible  for  Continental  free- 
masonry and  the  anti-religious  campaign.  It  is 
easier  to  make  the  Devil  responsible  ;  but  we  should 
not  fall  back  on  supernatural  explanations  where 
natural  suffice.  The  Devil  may  be  ultimately  re- 
sponsible if  we  can  find  no  natural  causes,  of  which, 
however,  there  are  plenty.  Ireland  is  mystical  and 
religious  by  nature  and  temperament,  and  should  she 

M 


178     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

cease  to  be  so  she  will  never  realise  herself  greatly ; 
she  will  drift  into  practical  materialism  and  go  to 
pieces  as  the  Latin  nations  are  doing.  And  in  both 
cases  clericalism  will  be  to  blame.  Let  us  take  to 
heart  the  object-lesson  offered  us  by  those  nations. 
The  one  remedy  for  clericalism  is  religion — true, 
living  rehgion  that  springs  from  the  heart  of  the 
people  and  bears  the  colour  and  impress  of  their 
national  character ;  not  a  system  manufactured  and 
imposed  from  outside  and  stuck  into  them  like  a 
rootless  flower  into  a  child's  garden.  In  the  past, 
to  a  great  extent,  the  Catholicism  of  Ireland  has  been 
Irish — implanted,  no  doubt,  from  outside,  but  taking 
root  in  the  soil  of  the  Irish  heart  and  mind  and 
tradition,  and  betraying  the  character  of  its  new  home 
in  flower  and  blossom.  It  has  also  been  Roman,  in 
that  it  ever  looked  with  reverence  to  the  See  of  Peter 
as  reflecting  the  faith  of  the  CathoUc  world  and 
leading  the  nations,  less  by  command  than  by  the 
example  and  practice  of  that  faith.  But  it  is  idle  to 
deny  in  the  face  of  history  that  the  political  (at  all 
times  so  fatal  to  the  religious)  interests  of  the  Holy 
See  have  often  interfered  with  the  free  autonomous 
expansion  of  Irish  Cathohcism,  and  by  pressing  it 
into  an  ItaUan  mould  in  Italian  interests  have  tended 
to  destroy  its  Irish  character  and  give  it  an  exotic 
complexion,  thus  loosening  its  grip  on  the  heart  of 
the  people.  Thank  God,  the  evil  is  not  yet  too  far 
advanced  to  be  remediable,  yet  we  are  in  some 
respects  on  the  slope  by  which  France  has  slid  down 
to  the  abyss.  Our  hope  is  in  our  younger  clergy  who, 
unlike  the  mass  of  their  French  brethren,  are  deeply 
imbued  with  a  patriotic  and  democratic  spirit ;  and 
still  more  in  the  hving  faith  of  so  many  of  our  laity 


A   PINCH    OF   SNUFF  179 

who  will  never  allow  Catholicism  to  become  a  purely 
clerical  interest  and  monopoly. 

"  Finally,  if  Ireland  is  ever  to  be  delivered  from 
the  weakness  of  religious  disunion,  if  the  doors  of  her 
Church  are  to  be  thrown  open  to  all  men  of  good 
will,  who  earnestly  seek  the  truth  and  beheve  in  the 
reconciliation  of  faith  and  science,  of  religion  and 
democracy,  it  will  not  be  by  the  predominance  of 
a  spirit  of  exclusiveness  and  intolerance  which  has 
nothing  to  do  with  religion,  and  is  merely  the  parasite 
of  clericalism/' 

Similar  hopes  and  ideals  had  often  been  expressed 
by  the  forward  Irish  priests  and  Catholic  laymen  in 
the  course  of  the  whole  previous  decade,  and  were 
more  or  less  at  the  back  of  the  numerous  struggles 
with  autocratic  or  ultramontane  or  formalistic  eccle- 
siastics— struggles  which  were  generally  precipitated 
through  opposition  to  the  rising  national  spirit  and 
will  in  matters  of  education.  Slowly  but  steadily  a 
very  appreciable  part  of  the  Irish  Cathohc  world  had 
come  to  realise  the  distinction  between  clericahsm 
and  reHgion.  Anti-clericahsm  sometimes  found  vigor- 
ous exposition.  Even  clerics  could  lend  a  hand  in  the 
work.  In  December  1908,  in  a  letter  to  the  general 
secretary  of  the  Gaelic  League,  a  letter  pubhshed  far 
and  wide,  a  priest  of  high  standing  and  long  service 
in  the  Church  in  Ireland  said  :  "  God  knows  if  there 
were  more  anti-  (certain)  clerics  and  more  anti-  (the 
petty  intolerance  and  stupid,  narrow-minded  des- 
potism of  occasional)  clerics,  both  the  Irish  clergy 
and  laity  would  benefit  enormously,  and  so  would 
the  influence  of  the  clergy  and  the  best  interests  of 
rehgion."  But  other  and  wider  groimd  was  taken 
by  lay  critics.     I  give  one  out  of  numerous  examples. 


180     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

Mr.  P.  S.  O'Hegarty,  one  of  the  most  prominent  and 
pointed  of  the  Irish  Nation  contributors,  wrote  in  the 
issue  of  September  4th,  1909  : — 

"  It  would  be  folly  and  dishonesty  to  deny  that 
the  country  has  been,  and  still  remains  to  some 
extent,  a  priest-ridden  country.  That  arose  out  of 
the  mental  confusion  which  followed  the  replacement 
of  good  Irish  by  broken  English — out  of  the  fact  that 
all  the  natural  leaders  of  the  people  deserted  Ireland 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  that  she  commenced 
the  nineteenth  with  the  Nation  reduced  to  the  demo- 
cracy, and  with  the  aristocracy  and  middle  classes 
hostile.  But  that  is  changing  in  our  time,  and  the 
Nation,  coming  again  into  its  own  mind,  has  a  mind 
to  emancipate  itself  and  take  its  destiny  into  its  own 
hands.  There  is  a  natural  reluctance  on  the  one 
hand  to  give  up  the  exercise  of  an  authority  which 
with  use  had  almost  grown  to  be  a  right,  and  on  the 
other  hand  there  is  a  natural  tendency  to  emancipate 
itself  with  as  much  gentleness  as  possible.  In  cases 
where  the  issue  was  clear,  even  when  she  was  most 
subservient  to  the  clergy,  Ireland  has  always  followed 
only  herself.  Now  she  is  beginning  to  see  the  issue 
all  the  time,  and  not  spasmodically  at  long  intervals  ; 
and  therefore  she  must  take  things  secular  into  her 
own  hands  and  keep  them  there.  .  .  .  When  we  are 
called  anti-clerical  it  really  means  that  we  are  insisting 
for  the  Nation  as  a  whole  and  for  every  individual  in 
it  that  the  Church  should  confine  itself  to  such  matters 
as  come  within  its  province,  and  that  secular  matters 
should  remain  secular.  And  we  are  anti-clerical,  all 
of  us,  in  that  sense,  and  rightly  so.  It  is  an  ancient 
battle,  that  has  had  to  be  fought  in  every  country  in 
the  world,  and  we  also  must  fight  it — nay,  we  are 


A   PINCH    OF   SNUFF  181 

j&ghting  it.  And  if  we  are  to  emancipate  the  Nation 
we  must  fight  it  to  a  finish." 

The  place  of  clerics  in  the  Nation,  the  rights  of 
laymen  in  the  Church,  the  ideahstic  side  of  nationality, 
the  mystical  essence  of  religion,  and  other  pertinent  and 
vital  things,  were  much  with  us  at  stage  after  stage. 

To  return  to  Archbishop  Healy.  I  would  leave  the 
reader  with  a  partial  and  unfair  impression  of  his  bold 
and  hale  personality  if  I  did  not  mention  that  he  can 
talk  sheer  and  straight  to  the  all-claiming  clerics  on 
occasion.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Maynooth  Union 
in  1907  he  bluntly  told  the  clerical  managers  that 
their  retention  of  their  position  depended  on  intelli- 
gence, efiiciency,  and  tolerance.  "  Prove  yourselves 
intelligent  and  efficient,"  he  said.  "  Look  after  the 
schools,  visit  them  constantly,  make  things  comfort- 
able for  the  poor,  shivering  children,  treat  the  teachers 
with  kindness  and  consideration,  and  do  away  with 
all  spirit  of  domination  and  tyranny."  Straight  talk, 
verily !  And  in  the  case  of  the  majority  of  the 
clerical  managers,  as  the  teachers  make  clear,  entirely 
and  painfully  necessary.  In  October  1909,  when 
certain  clergymen  at  the  conference  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  Truth  Society  had  tried  to  make  the  flesh  of 
their  audience  creep  on  the  subject  of  what  they 
imagined  to  be  Socialism,  Dr.  Healy  declared  it  to  be 
the  duty  of  the  State,  or  the  Government,  or  the 
Community  to  find  work  for  everybody  who  is  able 
to  work  and  wants  work  ;  that  furthermore  all  those 
who  are  able  to  work  ought  to  work,  chnching  his 
argument  with  the  quotation  from  St.  Paul,  "  If  any 
man  does  not  work,  neither  let  him  eat."  Anti- 
sociaUst  clerics  were  sadly  taken  aback  at  the  alliance 
of  Tuam  and  Tarsus. 


182     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

But  for  a  goodly  period  after  the  Connacht  College 
trouble  and  the  "  Pinch  of  Snuff  "  declaration  the 
bold  archbishop  was  in  a  somewhat  embarrassing 
position.  Many  of  the  people,  and  a  number  of  the 
priests,  "  were  not  playing  "  with  him.  As  his  epis- 
copal silver  jubilee  approached  his  friends  grew 
nervous.  The  prospects  for  the  social  celebration  of 
the  event  were  not  at  all  to  their  liking.  Leading 
townsmen  whom  they  pressed  to  join  a  Celebration 
Committee  were  polite  but  cold.  People  pointed  to 
the  fact  that  on  his  own  showing  Dr.  Healy  did  not 
care  a  pinch  of  snuff  for  their  opinion,  so  why  should 
they  go  to  the  trouble  of  affecting  an  appreciation 
which  would  not  be  appreciated  ?  A  somewhat 
piquant  story  was  sent  to  me  at  this  stage  by  a  well- 
known  correspondent : — 

"  Tuesday's  Freeman  had  an  inspired  account  from 
Tuam  about  the  '  enthusiasm '  manifested  by  the 
priests  and  the  generous  subscriptions  they  are  giving. 
The  truth  is  that  at  the  meeting  of  the  clergy,  after 
the  Retreat,  a  champion  of  the  archbishop's  proposed 
[of  course  unknown  to  him]  that  all  parish  priests  be 
asked  to  subscribe  £5,  and  all  curates  £2,  to  a  testi- 
monial. As  a  ballot  was  not  taken  it  can  be  quite 
understood  that  no  one  cared  to  raise  an  objection 
to  this  involuntary  tax.  If  the  vote  had  been  by 
ballot  it  is  certain  that  the  result  would  not  be  so 
satisfactory." 

The  picture  of  the  parish  priests  producing  their 
sovereigns  or  bank  notes  and  looking  pleasant  was 
much  appreciated  at  the  time.  I  do  not  think  that 
Dr.  Healy  personally  paid  any  particular  heed  to 
popularity  or  unpopularity.  For  much  in  his  career 
he  deserved  the  former,  and  due  admission  was  made 


A   PINCH   OF   SNUFF  183 

of  the  fact  when  the  actual  celebration  came.  But 
the  point  is  the  intensity  of  the  feeling  and  opposition 
which  he  aroused  when  he  ran  counter  to  the  popular 
ideal  regarding  Irish,  and  to  what,  in  the  case  of  the 
Connacht  College,  was  considered  democratic  right. 
I  have  not  quoted  the  stronger  language  used.  Ex- 
pressive in  the  passion  of  the  hour,  it  is  a  httle  too 
hot  for  history. 

A  brother  prelate  scored  neatly  off  his  Grace  at  a 
later  stage.  When  the  time  came  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Dean  of  Residence  in  the  Galway  College 
of  the  National  University,  it  was  understood  that 
Dr.  Healy  intended  to  propose  a  favoured  priest  of 
his  own  archdiocese.  At  the  meeting  of  the  governing 
body,  however,  the  new  Bishop  of  Galway,  Dr.  O'Dea 
— understood  from  the  first  to  have  been  "  sound  " 
on  the  essential  Irish  question — forestalled  him  by 
proposing  Father  Macllhinney,  an  esteemed  young 
Irish-Ireland  sagart.  Dr.  Healy  seemed  nonplussed. 
It  would  look  very  bad  indeed,  especially  with  so 
many  laymen  to  the  fore,  were  an  archbishop  to  put 
forward  a  candidate  in  opposition  to  a  bishop's.  He 
looked  uncomfortable.  Then  a  thought  i  "-^ruck  him. 
He  asked  in  his  high  and  not  entirely  musical  voice  : 
*'  But  does  Father  Macllhinney  know  Irish  1  Isn't 
that  the  great  thing  nowadays  1  "  Bishop  O'Dea 
arose,  and  said  blandly  :  "  Yes,  Father  Macllhinney 
knows  Irish  well,  and  in  regard  to  the  language  and 
its  place  he  is  an  even  greater  enthusiast  than — 
his  Grace  of  Tuam  himself."  When  the  laughter 
had  subsided  Father  Macllhinney  was  unanimously 
elected. 

Dr.  Healy  is  the  dominant  personage  of  the  Irish 
CathoHc  Truth  Society  ;   and  it  is  a  curious  fact  that 


184     THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

when  it  holds  its  conferences  or  other  gatherings  in 
the  Irish  capital,  Dr.  Walsh,  the  CathoHc  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  is  never  present  and  never  recognises  it 
in  any  way.  The  I.C.T.S.  is  treated  with  delicate 
irony  or  pungent  sarcasm  by  various  Irish  Catholic 
laymen  and  by  some  Irish  priests.  Others  who  wish 
to  be  kindly  in  all  things  say  that  at  least  it  does  no 
harm  and  keeps  some  printers  in  employment.  It 
publishes  something  that  is  honestly  intended  to  be 
Irish  history,  little  pious  romances,  and  well-meaning 
booklets  and  snippets  of  various  orders,  including  a 
modest  biography  of  "  the  patron  saint  of  priests' 
housekeepers."  It  is  a  kindly  intellectual  nursery 
for  children  of  larger  growth.  From  some  aspects  its 
policy  might  be  described  as  that  of  offering  a  thin 
biscuit  to  a  starving  man  just  to  keep  the  life  in 
him.  As  an  index  of  episcopal  and  clerical  percep- 
tion of  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  needs  of  the  age 
it  is  eloquent  beyond  telUng.  As  mental  sustenance 
for  the  children  of  the  race  that  moulded  the  Red 
Branch  saga  and  the  tales  and  songs  of  Fionn  and  his 
Companions  its  offerings  are  affecting — to  tears.  For 
the  emigrant  missionaries  that  ever  in  ecclesiastical 
visions  go  forth  to  evangelise  and  philosophise  the 
far  lands  that  cry  in  the  darkness  for  light  its  creations 
are  magnificent  in  their  simplicity.  And  the  tower- 
ing personality  of  his  Grace  of  the  West  at  its  head 
all  the  time,  directing  and  blessing  the  mountain  in 
labour — what  an  artless  child  can  a  big  man  be  ! 


CHAPTER   XIV 

BISHOPS   AND   FESTIVALS 

In  1908,  after  it  had  come  to  be  understood  that  the 
Cathohc  bishops  as  a  whole  had  one  conception  of 
the  University  position  and  a  host  of  the  laity  another, 
two  strange  situations  also  arose  locally,  one  in  a 
northern  diocese,  the  other  in  a  southern  diocese. 
They  differed  curiously  in  character,  each  occasioned 
strong  feeling  and  criticism,  and  each  was  attended 
with  certain  ironies. 

In  Donegal — diocese  of  Raphoe — the  priests,  as 
might  be  expected  in  rather  poverty-stricken  quarters 
where  capable  lay  leaders  were  not  so  numerous  as 
elsewhere,  had  acquired  rather  exceptional  promin- 
ence in  the  guiding  of  the  Gaelic  League  branches. 
Some  did  the  work  well,  several  were  not  exactly 
zealous  over  its  serious  educational  or  teaching  side. 
In  such  matters  the  annual  Feis,  as  already  explained, 
is  one  special  test  of  achievement.  Feis  Thir  Chonaill 
(as  the  Donegal  Feis  was  called)  caused  great  dis- 
satisfaction in  1907,  when  it  was  held  in  Letterkenny, 
the  diocesan  centre.  It  was  severely  criticised  by 
northern  contributors  to  the  Peasant,  described  as 
ill-arranged,  unordered,  backward,  and  looking  like 
a  side-show  to  a  big  A.O.H.  or  Hibernian  demon- 
stration arranged  for  the  same  day,  and  addressed 
by  some  of  the  priests.  Thousands  of  the  Hibernians, 
like  Orangemen,  are  rather  simple-minded,  impulsive 


186     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

folk,  easily  swayed  by  more  clever  people  ;  a  good 
deal  of  political  melodrama  has  been  manufactured 
in  connection  with  them.  Later  on  a  proportion  of 
the  Hibernians  drank  more  than  was  good  for  them, 
and  their  conduct  on  the  homeward  way  was  not 
edifying.  One  of  the  priests  wrote  to  defend  the 
Feis  and  the  Hibernians  as  well  as  he  could,  but  the 
general  case  was  unshaken,  and  there  remained  a 
feeling  that  Letterkenny  on  the  day  in  question 
showed  a  sad  contrast  to  the  order  that  had  come  to 
characterise  Irish  towns  during  Feiseanna.  Curiously 
enough  some  Donegal  Hibernians  wrote  in  a  grateful 
spirit  about  the  criticism,  and  expressed  the  hope 
that  it  would  lead  to  searching  of  heart  and  amend- 
ment in  sections  of  the  "  Ancient  Order." 

In  the  following  year,  1908,  the  Donegal  Feis  Com- 
mittee, consisting  largely  of  priests,  decided  to  hold 
the  festival  in  a  remote  part  of  the  county,  at  the 
Rock  of  Doon,  a  centre  with  particular  Catholic  asso- 
ciations, having  long  been  a  place  of  pilgrimage  on 
the  29th  of  June,  the  feast  of  Saints  Peter  and  Paul. 
It  was  for  this  CathoHc  holiday  that  the  Feis  was 
also  arranged.  In  the  circumstances  the  event  at 
the  very  start  promised  to  be  as  much  a  pilgrimage 
as  a  Gaelic  festival.  .  In  point  of  fact  it  proved  to  be 
largely  a  religious  service  and  demonstration.  It  was 
begun  with  High  Mass  on  the  Rock,  there  was  a 
sermon,  and  certain  subsequent  addresses  were  Hke 
sermons.  The  Bishop  of  Raphoe,  Dr.  O'Donnell,  the 
great  power  in  Donegal  affairs,  was  present  in  state, 
and  preached  or  spoke  ;  there  were  several  priests, 
with  a  multitude  of  people.  The  Gaelic  competitions, 
when  they  came,  were  badly  arranged  and  managed  ; 
as  on  the  previous  year  at  Letterkenny,  the  actual 


BISHOPS   AND   FESTIVALS        187 

"  Feis  "  was  a  secondary  business  and  a  comparative 
failure.  The  Oireachtas  Committee  of  the  Gaelic 
League  in  Dublin,  which  issues  the  formal  permits  for 
such  festivals  after  examining  and  sanctioning  their 
programmes,  had  been  left  in  ignorance  of  the  nature 
of  the  new  departure.  Curiously  enough,  one  of  the 
speakers  during  the  Feis  proceedings — so  far  as  there 
was  a  Feis — was  a  well-known  Belfast  lawyer,  Mr. 
Francis  Joseph  Bigger,  an  enthusiastic  Irish  anti- 
quary, a  Protestant,  and  a  popular  as  well  as  a  some- 
what unconventional  personality.  When  the  details 
reached  Dublin  the  criticism  of  "  Feis  Thir  Chonaill,"" 
1908,  was  decidedly  frank  and  free.  The  Peasant, 
as  was  duly  proved,  expressed  the  prevalent  view 
when  it  said  : — 

"  The  non-denominational  principle  of  the  Gaelic 
League  was  entirely  abandoned  by  the  clergymen 
who  had  control  of  the  Feis,  and  Ulster  Presbyterians 
and  Protestants  had  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
value  of  the  professions  that  Connradh  na  Gaedhilge 
provides  a  friendly  and  congenial  meeting-ground  for 
all  creeds  and  classes  of  Irishmen  and  Irishwomen 
— at  least  a  striking  illustration  of  tlieir  value  where 
certain  types  of  the  clergy  have  matters  their  own 
way.  .  .  .  The  Catholic  Church  and  all  the  Churches 
have  every  day  of  the  year  in  which  to  labour  for 
soul  and  body,  and  hardly  any  normal  being  in 
Ireland  shows  the  least  disposition  to  interfere  with 
their  work.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Feis  of  the  Gaelic 
League  in  any  region  comes  only  once  a  year,  and 
it  ought  to  be  on  such  a  day  and  in  such  a  place 
and  in  such  an  environment  and  circumstances  that 
the  work  of  the  Feis  and  the  purpose  of  the  League 
can    be    thoroughly    attended    to    and    adequately 


188     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

advanced.  It  ought  to  be  entirely  unnecessary  to 
maintain  that  on  the  scene  of  a  Feis  nothing  which 
could  in  the  least  degree  hurt  religious  or  political  sus- 
ceptibilities should  be  introduced.  This  should  be 
a  matter  of  honour  with  all  workers  and  all  others 
concerned.  ... 

"  Through  Feis  Thir  Chonaill  a  million  and  a  half 
Irish  Protestants  and  Presbyterians  were  notified 
that,  so  far  as  certain  Irish  priests  are  concerned, 
they  are  not  wanted  in  the  Gaelic  League.  The 
pioneers  and  leaders  of  the  League  were  informed 
in  equally  striking  fashion  that  they  may  dream  of 
and  preach  a  United  Ireland  as  much  as  they  please, 
but  that  where  those  particular  types  of  priests  are 
in  power  there  shall  be  no  union,  no  friendly  and 
kindly  '  garden  of  peace,'  no  real  nationality ;  that 
we  must  give  up  the  idea  of  a  common  country,  and 
dwell  in  our  several  concentration  camps.  For  our 
own  part,  and  we  speak  for  thousands  of  Irish 
Catholics,  some  of  whom  are  slowly  taking  heart  to 
speak  for  themselves,  we  refuse  to  do  anything  of 
the  kind.  .  .  .  They  [the  Donegal  clergy]  have  no 
right  whatever  to  try  to  wrench  the  Gaelic  League 
from  its  all-Ireland  mission  and  purpose,  and  they 
cannot  be  allowed  to  do  so." 

Against  this  let  us  take  the  view  of  Mr.  Bigger, 
writing  as  a  Protestant : — 

"  Objection  is  made  to  having  a  religious  service 
at  all  at  the  same  time  as  the  Feis.  The  religious 
service  at  Doon  Pock  on  the  29th  is  an  institution, 
so  could  not  be  interfered  with.  Of  course,  the  date 
of  the  Feis  could  have  been  altered.  To  my  mind 
the  choice  of  such  a  festival  at  such  a  place  as  Doon 


BISHOPS   AND   FESTIVALS        189 

Rock  was  a  very  excellent  arrangement  and  most 
suitable  for  all  the  people,  especially  those  from 
remote  parts,  at  a  busy  season  of  the  year  when  it 
would  be  unreasonable  to  take  two  days  when  one 
would  do.  The  Rock  of  Doon  is  far  distant  from 
many  parts  of  Donegal,  and  thousands  of  people 
made  very  early  starts  that  morning  to  be  there,  and 
it  was  obligatory  on  most  of  them  to  hear  Mass,  and 
so  their  Church  very  properly  arranged  it  for  them. 
Under  similar  circumstances  Protestants  could  have 
made  similar  arrangements  to  suit  their  require- 
ments. .  .  .  Thus  was  Feis  Thir  Chonaill  opened  by 
Catholic  [Bishop  O'Donnell]  and  Protestant  [himself] 
without  any  friction  or  the  slightest  ill-will  or  the 
remotest  dereliction  of  the  principles  of  the  Gaelic 
League.  All  the  speakers  expressed  entire  satisfac- 
tion at  this  union  of  Irishmen  in  a  common  cause. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  perfect,  more  com- 
plete, more  harmonious." 

Here  then  is  another  notable  instance  of  the  Irish 
Protestant  taking  the  ultra-clerical  side.  Cathohc 
criticism  at  the  time  was  strongly  the  other  way. 
When  the  following  year  the  matter  of  the  Donegal 
Feis  came  up  once  more  it  was  found  that  the  pro- 
posed arrangements  were  similar  to  those  of  1908. 
There  was  to  be  High  Mass  as  before,  but  it  was  pointed 
out  that  the  Feis  proper  would  be  quite  apart.  The 
Gaelic  League  authorities  in  Dublin  refused  to  sanc- 
tion the  Feis  in  the  circimistances,  and  the  Donegal 
festival  dropped  out  of  the  list  of  League  events.  The 
clergy  organised  the  pilgrimage  and  religious  demon- 
stration in  their  own  way.  The  relations  of  the 
Leaguers  and  many  of  the  clergy,  especially  higher 


190     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

clergy,  have  remained  more  or  less  strained  ever  since 
in  Donegal.  Much  of  the  region  is  poor,  and  the  inde- 
pendent lay  elements  are  scattered.  However,  Irish 
is  taught  in  practically  all  the  Donegal  schools,  and 
the  Gaehc  Training  College  in  remote  Clochaneely  in 
the  summer  and  early  autumn  links  the  people  in 
a  dehghtful  way  with  a  larger  hfe.  Special  social 
evenings  are  arranged  for  all  who  Hke  to  come,  and 
professors,  students,  lay  and  clerical,  and  peasantry 
fraternise  in  a  fashion  that  could  not  well  be  more 
cheerily  democratic.  This  is  the  one  rm'al  Gaehc 
College  whose  Principal  is  a  lady — Miss  Agnes 
O'Farrelly,  M.A.,  one  of  the  lecturers  in  the  Dubhn 
College  of  the  National  University.  The  way  these 
Gaehc  training  colleges  linlc  city  culture  and  country 
lore  is  novel  and  remarkable. 

The  trouble  in  the  southern  diocese,  in  Kerry,  was 
of  quite  another  order,  though  it  also  arose  out  of  a 
Feis  :  that  of  Killarney,  known  as  Feis  na  n-Airne. 
It  appeared  that  this  Feis,  in  1908,  was  not  organised 
and  conducted  in  the  interests  and  for  the  purposes  of 
the  Gaehc  League,  but  as  an  aid  to  the  KiUarney 
Cathedral  Fmid,  to  which  aU  the  monetary  proceeds 
were  devoted.  The  suggestion  came  from  the  Bishop 
of  Kerry,  who  had  not  been  regarded  as  altogether  an 
enthusiastic  admirer  of  the  Gaehc  League.  The  full 
facts  did  not  reach  the  League  authorities  in  Dubhn 
till  the  Feis  was  over.  Then  it  transpired  that  the 
chief  organiser  for  Munster,  Fiondn  MacColuim,  an 
exceedingly  popular  and  competent  official,  had  actu- 
ally taken  part  in  the  Feis,  though  knowing  the  whole 
circiunstances — he  apparently  thought  it  good  policy 
to  go  out  of  one's  way  once  in  a  while  to  befriend  a 


BISHOPS   AND   FESTIVALS        191 

bishop.  In  Dublin,  however,  we  took  a  more  de- 
tached view,  and  insisted  that  to  turn  the  Gaehc 
League  at  any  point  into  a  Church  collecting  agency, 
whether  the  Church  was  Catholic  or  Protestant,  was 
a  breach  of  its  constitution  and  its  spirit,  though  in 
his  personal  capacity  a  League  organiser  or  anybody 
else  was  quite  welcome  to  devote  his  whole  income 
to  the  Killarney  Cathedral  if  he  so  desired.  The 
Peasant  said,  however,  that  more  moderate  am- 
bitions in  the  way  of  cathedrals  might  not  be  inad- 
visable ;  that  a  great  cathedral  within  measurable 
distance  of  wretched  slums — which  must  have  a 
lowering  effect  on  the  spiritual  condition  of  the 
people — seemed  incongruous ;  that  churches  were 
noble  things  when  erected  in  the  right  spirit,  but  we 
should  also  remember  that  Christianity  was  advanced 
and  Providence  reverenced  and  praised  through  the 
erection  of  bright  schools  for  children,  halls  and 
libraries  for  the  town  and  village  folk,  healthy  and 
serviceable  homes  for  all ;  that  we  might  easily  have 
them  all :  the  great  churches,  the  bright  schools,  the 
stimulating  halls,  the  inspiring  Hbraries,  the  healthy 
homes,  had  we  a  nobler  social  spirit,  and  a  more 
practical  Christian  one — and  if  we  reduced  the  national 
drink-bill  by  some  millions. 

In  the  result  Mr.  MacColuim  was  reprimanded,  and 
the  Killarney  branch  of  the  Gaehc  League,  which  con- 
tained some  devoted  workers,  was  suspended  for  a 
period.  At  the  same  time  I  received  and  pubhshed 
some  outspoken  contributions  on  the  burning  question 
of  collections  for  church  and  cathedral  funds — with 
pointed  references  to  slums  and  poverty — the  most 
trenchant  of   all  being  from   a  priest  who  had  an 


192     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

extensive  knowledge  of  Kerry.  He  relieved  his  feelings 
in  a  long  article  not  only  on  the  cathedral  question 
but  on  the  position  of  Irish  education  and  other 
things.  Incidentally  he  threw  light  on  remote  CathoHc 
circumstances  : — 

"  I  consider  it  a  shame  to  lavish  money  on  a  cathe- 
dral already  completed,  which  is  now  being  partly 
pulled  down  and  rebuilt  to  satisfy  the  aesthetic  sense 
of  certain  people  .  .  .  while  down  in  Iveragh  we  find 
Catholic  churches  in  a  rather  dilapidated  condition, 
unworthy  of  the  Sacramental  Presence,  and  certainly 
not  very  creditable  to  Kerrymen.  .  .  .  By  all  means 
let  us  have  beautiful  churches  in  Kerry — as  beautiful 
as  we  can  make  them — but  before  building  large 
cathedrals  let  us  see  that  the  Httle  country  churches 
are  not  only  neat  and  respectable  but  also  comfort- 
able, from  the  point  of  view  of  the  worshippers  that 
frequent  them." 

These  northern  and  southern  "  events  "  were  sug- 
gestive illustrations  of  the  varying  attitudes  and 
moods  of  prelates  according  to  circumstances.  The 
developments  in  both  cases  were  also  expressive  signs 
of  the  times  in  their  own  fashion. 


CHAPTER   XV 

MATERIALISM   AND   MYSTICISM 

On  the  single  subject  of  the  discussions,  reviews,  con- 
fidences, and  hopes  that  I  heard  expressed  regarding 
rehgion  and  theology  during  five  eventful  years  in  Ire- 
land, I  might  write  a  volume  rather  larger  than  this  pre- 
sent book.  Only  on  one  occasion  did  the  conversation 
bear  on  Catholicism  versus  Protestantism,  and  then  it 
was  mainly  a  consideration,  and  an  extremely  interest- 
ing one  it  proved,  of  the  different  kinds  of  mysticism 
in  the  two  churches.  Of  controversy  in  the  ordinary 
sense  I  heard  nothing.  There  was  plenty  of  discus- 
sion regarding  the  position  of  clerics  in  the  nation, 
and  their  attitude  to  science,  intellectual  life,  the 
new  movements,  and  so  on,  with  unsparing  incidental 
criticism  of  those  bishops  and  other  ecclesiastics  who 
would  keep  the  country  in  what  was  often  described 
as  a  series  of  sectarian  concentration  camps.  Of  re- 
ligious and  theological  speculation  and  readjustment 
there  was  and  is  a  great  deal,  particularly  amongst 
students.  Certain  of  the  developments  are  called 
scepticism  by  numerous  ecclesiastics  and  some  women ; 
but,  as  I  have  sometimes  pointed  out  to  such  alarmed 
souls,  it  can  scarcely  be  scepticism  to  reject  a  super- 
ficial explanation  and  search  for,  and  perhaps  find, 
a  deeper  one.  Those  same  agitated  spirits  also  con- 
found faith  and  belief  at  every  step.  Any  rejection 
or  outgrowth  of  a  particular  behef  or  explanation  is 

193  J, 


194     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

to  them  a  loss  of  faith.  Disbelief  in  the  quaint  and 
fantastic  miracles  ascribed  to  St,  Patrick  is  loss  of 
faith,  though  one  may  hold  that  miracles — to  normal 
eyes — are  possible,  in  the  sense  that  beings  or  highly 
evolved  souls  who  are  masters  of  higher  laws  than 
we  are  normally  conscious  of  can  work  them.  Dis- 
behef  in  the  creation  story  in  Genesis,  literally  and 
exoterically  regarded,  is  loss  of  faith,  though  one  may 
hold  a  highly  philosophical  and  spiritual  theory  of 
Creation.  We  might  take  a  hundred  instances.  For 
good  or  ill,  or  rather  a  mixture  of  good  and  ill,  the 
view-point  of  a  great  deal  of  the  Irish  Catholic  world 
has  been  changing  for  a  long  time,  and  the  results 
show  us  several  grades  from  spirituality  and  mysti- 
cism to  mere  indifference  and  materialism.  For  the 
latter,  Maynooth  priests — Columban  Leaguers — put 
much  of  the  blame  upon  clerical  education.  They 
speak  rather  strongly  on  the  matter,  declaring  that 
sundry  doctors,  lawyers,  and  others,  who  have  passed 
through  certain  institutions,  are  a  standing  criticism 
of  their  educators.  Independence  and  character 
are  sapped,  and  deterioration  follows.  Cities  and 
country  towns  afford  unpleasant  illustrations  in 
point.  Irish  secondary  education  is  very  largely  in 
clerical  hands,  and  it  has  turned  out  a  large  proportion 
of  snobs  and  intellectual  weaklings,  whose  religious 
spirit  is  superficial.  The  primary  system  has  several 
wants  and  several  positive  vices.  While  we  meet  fine 
types  of  primary  teachers,  they  are  so  in  spite  of  the 
system.  The  initial  training  is  imperfect,  the  dis- 
advantages many,  the  remmieration  inadequate,  the 
regulations  and  procedure  of  the  unrepresentative 
education  Board  and  some  of  its  inspectors  often 


MATERIALISM   AND   MYSTICISM     195 

perplexing  and  vexatious,  while  the  local  clerical 
managers  on  their  own  part  too  frequently  try  to  keep 
the  teachers  in  a  state  of  semi-serfdom.  Character 
in  a  primary  teacher,  or  its  development  in  pupils,  is 
not  as  a  rule  encouraged.  There  is  constant  criticism 
or  condemnation  of  one  thing  or  another,  or  several 
things,  in  this  curious,  oft-patched,  inharmonious,  and 
still  largely  unserviceable  system.  The  depth  and 
extent  of  the  religious  teaching  in  numerous  primary 
schools  have  been  the  subject  of  criticism  and  mis- 
giving. Strangely  enough,  most  Irish  priests  do  sur- 
prisingly little  in  the  way  of  teaching  religion  to  the 
young. 

Altogether  much  in  Irish  educational  systems  has 
not  made  for  virile  Christianity  any  more  than  for 
patriotism.  Then  the  severe  and  rigid  way  in 
which  Christianity  has  been  preached  in  so  many 
places  has  led  to  questioning,  to  estrangement  from 
the  Church,  to  indifierence,  to  weariness,  though  often 
in  these  cases  a  lackadaisical  conformity  is  main- 
tained ;  the  hold  of  ecclesiasticism,  such  as  it  is,  is 
social,  not  intellectual  or  spiritual.  At  the  same  time 
while  some  of  the  disaffected  think  that,  because  the 
preaching  and  teaching  are  imnatural,  religion  itself  is 
wrong,  and  grow  indifferent  or  materiahstic,  others 
maintain  a  goodly  sense  of  the  spiritual,  thougli  they 
cannot  harmonise  it  with  the  theology  that  is  pre- 
sented to  them.  However,  the  thought  and  candid 
criticism  of  late  years  have  spread,  amongst  a  pro- 
portion of  such  folk  who  read,  a  lively  sense  of  the 
fact  that  cleric  or  theologian  is  not  necessarily  in- 
fallible— as  the  populace  were  encouraged  to  assume 
— and  that  it  is  quite  possible  to  be  spiritual,  and  a 


196     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

part  of  the  Church  in  the  great  sense,  though  at  odds 
or  at  war  with  either  clericaHsm  or  phases  of  theology. 
La5mien,  in  fact,  have  been  exalting  their  philosophy 
and  spiritualising  their  theology  for  themselves. 
Numerous  cases  have  come  within  my  own  experience, 
while  in  the  large  correspondence  which  I  received  on 
the  serial  publication  of  The  Plough  and  the  Cross  in 
1909,  and  in  kindred  correspondence  at  various  stages 
to  the  present  time,  the  most  interesting  points  are 
from  correspondents  far  apart  in  locality  and  station, 
who  declare  they  had  long  held  such  and  such  views 
— expressed  by  one  or  other  of  the  characters — but 
assmned  that  they  were  each  alone  in  the  holding, 
or  at  any  rate  in  a  small  minority.  The  views  con- 
cerned a  more  spiritual,  or  a  more  active,  or  a  more 
independent  Christianity. 

In  numerous  novels,  biographies,  and  autobio- 
graphies we  have  read  much  about  individual  out- 
growth of  creeds,  of  the  clash  of  soul  and  long-accepted 
theological  explanations  and  formulse.  Intensity  and 
pain  of  spirit  are  often  in  the  story.  Strangely  enough 
I  have  known  various  Irishmen  whose  rehgious  and 
theological  conceptions  have  been  revolutionised  in 
the  present  century,  and  there  has  been  no  pain  or 
stress  whatever.  They  came  easily  and  naturally  into 
the  new  life  and  experience.  They  awoke,  as  it  were, 
on  a  radiant  morning  to  find  the  world  and  them- 
selves re-made,  a  new  magic  in  the  meaning  and 
march  of  soul  and  Nature.  The  priest  had  ceased  to 
be  dominant  and  all-important ;  he  was  indeed  one 
avowedly  more  sacrificial  in  his  service,  more  con- 
cerned with  the  unceasing  illustration  of  a  Way  of 
Life  than  they,  and,  in  so  far  as  he  lived  up  to  the 


MATERIALISM   AND   MYSTICISM     197 

spiritual  and  practical  call  of  his  Gospel,  bound  to  find 
life  a  strange  mixture  of  outer  trial  and  inward  peace  ; 
a  helper  and  a  servant  of  souls  ;  but  withal  a  brother 
pilgrim,  a  soul  on  a  cyclic  journey  even  as  the  least 
of  themselves.  For  them  old  explanations  had 
cnmibled  away ;  they  set  aside  old  tales  but  re- 
membered the  truth  embodied  in  the  tales  ;  they 
became  less  and  less  theological  and  more  and  more 
religious. 

The  factors  that  conduced  to  these  things  were 
subtle  and  various.  Some  of  those  who  have  ex- 
perienced the  greatest  changes  declare  frankly  that 
the  start  and  the  stages  are  not  clearly  realisable,  at 
least  intellectually,  even  by  themselves.  The  laws  of 
the  subjective  and  subconscious  life  elude  sounding 
and  summarising.  The  effects  are  more  evident  than 
the  causes.  It  can  be  said  that  in  some  cases  some- 
thing in  the  developments  suggests  Gnosticism,  neo- 
Platonism,  Buddhism,  Hinduism,  Theosophy,  esoteric 
Christianity,  the  esoteric  Celticism  of  certain  stories 
and  poems.  Hermetic  philosophy — of  course  there  is 
a  sense  in  which  they  are  all  kindred.  But  that  is  no 
real,  at  any  rate,  no  full  explanation.  Many  would 
have  changed  and  developed  much  as  they  did  had 
these  things  never  been  expressed  and  preserved. 
The  impulse  and  the  light  were  in  themselves.  They 
had  questioned,  brooded,  and  thought  in  their  own 
way,  and  then  some,  but  not  ail  of  them,  by  different 
roads  and  at  different  times,  came  to  the  realisation 
of  the  fact  that  much  of  the  East  and  not  a  httle  of 
the  West  had  carried  the  questioning  and  the  in- 
tuition to  immeasurably  farther  stages,  ages  and 
cycles  before  them.    After  all  it  really  meant  that 


198     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

all  of  them,  ancients  and  moderns,  had  been  trying  to 
see,  or  had  seen,  from  the  soul's  point  of  view. 

Various  Irish  men  and  women  have  been  students 
in  these  fields  for  twenty  years  and  more.  Through 
the  poetry  and  prose  of  a  few — the  most  remarkable 
of  whom  is  Mr.  George  Eussell  ("A.  E.") — who  grew 
as  mystics  in  the  true  sense  rather  than  found  a 
species  of  mixed  psychism  and  mysticism  in  books 
and  from  societies,  the  theosophic  influence,  in  the 
broad  sense,  has  been  considerable.  The  re-discovery 
and  the  far  faring  of  sundry  Celtic  (or  pre-Celtic) 
stories  and  lore  meant  a  tilling  and  a  flowering  in  soil 
long  fallow.  PubUcations  like  the  Irish  Theosophist 
and  the  Internationalist  brought  something  of  a  new 
leaven  in  the  later  nineteenth  century.  Studies  in 
Erigena  and  his  neo-Platonism  (rather  than  his 
scholasticism)  affected  others  who  in  turn  exerted  no 
little  influence.  Theosophic  societies,  the  Hermetic 
Society,  and  others,  have  greatly  changed  the  trend 
and  colour  of  lives  in  Dublin  and  elsewhere.  Ireland 
gave  several  theosophists,  such  as  Wilham  Quan 
Judge,  to  the  general  movement  and  mission.  Of 
Judge  and  his  individuality  men  in  Dublin,  not  lightly 
given  to  eulogy,  speak  with  enthusiasm  and  affection. 
In  his  later  years,  like  other  Irish  theosophists,  he  was 
specially  identified  with  the  movement  in  America  ; 
and  nowadays  some  of  his  old  friends,  and  simdry 
other  folk  in  Dubhn  and  the  country,  genial  and 
strenuous  types  many  of  them,  are  linked  with  the 
Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical  Society 
whose  centre  is  at  Point  Loma  in  Cahfornia,  under 
the  leadership  of  Madame  Tingley.  Dubhn  has  its 
Irish  Theosophical  Society,  and  Mrs.  Annie  Besant's 


MATERIALISM  AND   MYSTICISM     199 

organisation  has  its  connections  there  and  elsewhere. 
Other  Dubhn  bodies  may  in  a  general  way  be  de- 
scribed as  theosophic.  The  Dublin  fellowship  of  the 
widest  scope  and  interest  in  my  experience  is  the 
Hermetic  Society,  whose  president  is  "A.  E/'  Ad- 
herents of  very  varied  creeds  are  present  at  the  larger 
meetings.  The  Book  of  its  proceedings,  conversa- 
tions, speculations,  and  surveys  would  be  a  fascinating 
medley  of  luminous  mysticism,  high-hearted  humanity, 
and  Hghtsome  humour.  It  would  give  Ireland  suffi- 
cient thought  to  go  on  with  for  about  a  century. 
The  Quest,  edited  by  Mr.  G.  R.  S.  Mead,  author  of  the 
exhaustive  studies  in  Gnosticism,  Fragments  of  a 
Faith  Forgotten,  and  its  peer  in  another  order,  Thrice- 
Greatest  Hermes,  &c.,  draws  some  of  its  ablest  contri- 
butors from  this  body.  In  one  or  other  of  these 
societies  we  meet  some  active  figures  of  both  the 
agricultural  co-operative  movement  and  the  GaeHc 
League,  as  well  as  several  of  the  younger  poets  and 
prose-writers  who  in  England  are  called  "  Celtic." 

I  had  ample  opportunity  of  reahsing  something  of 
the  effect  wrought  on  many,  though  they  might  difier 
from  particular  theories,  by  dehghtful  evenings  and 
confidences  in  this  Dublin  within  Dublin.  There  was 
no  danger,  so  far  as  some  of  us  were  concerned,  that 
in  our  daily  paths  we  would  grow  problem- vexed. 
The  Gaelic  League  alone,  with  its  urgent,  constructive 
work,  its  spirit  of  comradeship,  and  the  wealth  of 
character  with  which  it  brought  us  into  contact, 
would  have  kept  us  from  that.  But  the  more  sub- 
jective and  interior  journeyings  and  broodings  at 
centres  like  the  Hermetic  Society  left  a  sense  of 
spiritual  romance.    One's  mind  seemed  to  grow,  to 


200     THE    POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

become  creative  ;  and  a  more  subtle  and  secret  self 
could  watch  the  process  and  the  unfolding  with  a 
sense  at  once  of  detachment  and  wonder.  There  were 
times  when  we  came  to  realise  in  a  dim  yet  alluring 
way  what  it  meant  to  live  and  be  conscious  as  souls, 
not  as  buffeted  and  more  or  less  fretful  bodies  or 
personaUties.  "A.  E."  has  pictured  more  than  once 
the  possibiUty  of  a  time  when  men  may  have  deve- 
loped their  spiritual  selves  so  much  that  they  can  see 
as  far  and  as  wondrously  in  the  super-sensible  realm 
as  they  now  see  with  the  normal  sight  into  the  phy- 
sical realm  on  a  night  of  summer  and  starhght.  We 
could  understand  the  hope  and  the  evolution. 

It  is  exceedingly  interesting  to  study  the  effect  of 
various  esoteric  ideas  and  theories  on  people  who 
have  no  connection  with  any  of  the  societies  even 
as  visitors,  but  who  have  come  within  the  influence 
of  the  new  currents.  They  fascinate  some,  they  alarm 
others,  they  influence  more  who  aflect  to  resist  them 
but  cannot  away  from  their  consideration.  They 
have  meant  the  infusion  of  a  more  spiritual  and  mys- 
tical element  into  the  theology  of  Catholics  and  Pro- 
testants who  have  frankly  faced  them.  The  mystic 
doctrine  of  the  Logos,  of  which  official  Irish  Catho- 
licism has  practically  nothing  to  say  nowadays,  the 
divinity  of  the  real  man,  and — in  obvious  relation  to 
both — the  spirituality,  philosophy,  and  morality  of 
great  religions  long  anterior  to  historical  Christianity, 
are  truths  and  facts  of  which  we  have  heard  much. 
But  no  single  doctrine  has  caused  more  discussion,  or 
fared  farther,  than  that  of  re-incarnation  or  re-em- 
bodiment. It  is  of  course  bound  up  with  several 
others,  but  it  seems  to  prove  more  of  an  inspiration 


MATERIALISM   AND   MYSTICISM     201 

— or  a  storm-centre — than  any  of  them.  Where  it  is 
accepted,  in  its  philosophical  and  spiritual  essence, 
revolution  follows.  Many  confound  it  at  first  with 
transmigration  of  souls,  and  necessarily  those  who 
consider  their  habitual  selves  as  their  real  selves — who 
cannot  imagine  themselves  as  souls  acting  through 
a  temporary  personality — fail  to  grasp  its  bearing. 
This  in  my  experience  is  more  common  amongst  Irish 
women  than  Irish  men,  though  to  other  Irish  women 
it  is  a  very  definite  article  of  belief  or  faith.  Some 
objectors  have  been  much  embarrassed  by  the  infor- 
mation that  it  was  held  by  the  early  Christians — they 
grow  restive  nowadays  at  the  name  of  Origen.  Others 
are  horrified  at  the  notion  of  further  trial-lives  on 
earth,  but  would  gladly  reconcile  themselves  to  the 
thought  of  re-embodiment  and  progression  in  other 
spheres  or  states.  The  doctrine  of  course  was  accepted 
in  early  Ireland,  though  Dr.  Hyde  and  Professor 
MacNeill,  on  curiously  inconclusive  evidence,  incline 
to  the  view  that  it  was  not  general.  For  various 
people  who  have  come  under  the  spell  of  the  Gaelic 
idea  it  has  a  great  attraction.  The  thought  that  their 
real  selves  worked  through  bygone  personahties  and 
bodies  in  a  far-ofi  Gaelic  civilisation,  and  that  their 
present  enthusiasm  means  the  stir  and  response  of 
something  stored  from  the  past  in  higher  and  per- 
manent reaches  of  their  being,  proves  attractive. 
When  more  matter-of-fact  people  call  this  a  pictur- 
esque fancy-flourish,  they  are  reminded  that  conven- 
tional notions,  like  those  of  the  horned  Devil,  the 
unending  material  Hell,  and  so  on,  have  not  even 
the  merit  of  being  picturesque,  and  are  certainly  not 
philosophic.    However,  the  majority  of  those  con- 


202     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

cerned  work  steadily  and  are  content  to  let  theories 
come  afterwards. 

It  may  be  thought  by  some  readers  that  Mr.  W.  B. 
Yeats  is  a  moving  power  in  those  subtle  fields.  He 
is  not,  and  has  not  been  in  or  of  them  for  some  years. 
While  the  really  beautiful  work  he  has  done  is  appre- 
ciated, and  his  influence  in  several  directions  unre- 
servedly admitted,  his  mysticism  is  taken  somewhat 
airily,  not  a  Httle  of  it  treated  as  puzzling  if  pictur- 
esque manufacture.  Piquant  stories  are  told  of  his 
achievements  in  the  early  years  of  the  theosophic 
movement  in  Dublin.  The  son  of  a  once  famous 
Orange  politician  had  been  attracted  to  mystical 
philosophy  and  study,  and  in  due  course  published 
translations  of  some  of  the  Upanishads.  He  had  a 
fine  faculty  of  exposition,  and  on  the  evenings  he  set 
apart  for  expounding  esoteric  ideas  his  rooms  were  a 
favourite  centre  for  great  college  and  other  worthies 
who  on  these  things  had  open  and  inquiring  minds. 
But  as  he  warmed  to  the  work  Mr.  Yeats  would 
arrive,  accompanied  by  his  wondrous  cloudland.  He 
would  break  in  on  a  fascinating  dissertation  to  give 
his  own  explanation  of  how  the  ancient  wisdom  was 
preserved  and  transmitted  to  men.  On  the  summit 
of  one  of  the  snowy  Himalayas  sat  the  brooding  seers 
down  the  ages  till  their  ever-lengthening  beards,  in 
which  the  Asian  birds  built  their  nests  in  peace,  well- 
nigh  reached  the  base.  To  a  neighbouring  crest  came 
Madame  Blavatsky,  sat  her  down  and  waited,  like 
"  grey-haired  Saturn  quiet  as  a  stone,"  till  the  sages 
were  moved  to  murmur  little  or  much  of  what  their 
souls  knew.  Thus  he  would  go  on  and  on,  uttering 
the  wildest   fantasy  with  music  and   emotion  and 


MATERIALISM   AND   MYSTICISM     203 

solemnity  of  conviction,  till — it  was  no  use  for  host 
or  audience  to  think  of  getting  within  leagues  of 
serious  discussion  or  reality.  On  another  occasion  in 
an  interesting  haunt  he  agreed  to  work  a  little  magic, 
to  call  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep  or  something  kin- 
dred. He  demanded  a  glass  of  water  and  a  sword. 
The  glass  of  water  was  easy,  but  the  sword  was  the 
crux.  Alack,  there  was  no  sword,  but  a  would-be 
obliging  individual  produced  a  saw.  Mr.  Yeats  waved 
it  away  with  fine  scorn.  Even  a  wonder-worker  must 
respect  appearances,  and  obviously  in  such  a  situa- 
tion a  saw  is  not  exactly  dignified.  There  were  some 
anxious  moments,  but  at  last  an  old  soldier  in  the 
neighbourhood  was  remembered,  and  he  was  able  to 
lend  a  bayonet.  The  bayonet,  unlike  the  saw,  passed 
muster.  Then  the  passes,  signs,  summonings,  and  all 
the  modern  magic  began.  But  what  presences  really 
manifested  themselves  the  audience  never  knew,  for 
rising  into  sheer  and  whirling  ecstasy,  the  poet  and 
wonder-worker  began  to  slash  on  all  sides  with  the 
bayonet,  and  with  shrill  screams  and  laughter  the 
auditors  dashed  helter-skelter  from  their  places  and 
took  fearful  refuge  under  a  large  table  till  the  worst 
was  over. 

Even  mystics  tell  such  stories  with  gusto,  in  which, 
however,  there  is  always  a  certain  airy  friendliness. 
They  have  no  use  for  such  magic  arts.  Like  the 
modern  Ireland  that  counts,  and  like  Mr.  Yeats  him- 
self in  his  really  memorable  moments,  they  beheve 
in  the  magic  that  springs  from  illumined  mind  and 
awakened  will. 


CHAPTEE   XVI 

IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM 

Much  of  what  I  have  written  under  "  Materiahsm  and 
Mysticism  ""  apphes  exactly  to  the  case  of  the  majority 
of  Irish  lay  folk — so  far  as  I  know  them — who  may 
be  described  by  the  infelicitous  term  "  Modernists/' 
They  became  Modernists  without  knowing  it ;  they 
were  not  greatly  influenced  in  the  process  by  philo- 
sophers or  philosophies  ;  the  change  began  in  them- 
selves ;  they  simply  outgrew  the  crudity  and  forma- 
lism of  so  much  Irish  Catholic  theology  as — unfortu- 
nately— it  is  popularly  preached.  The  spirit  stirred 
and  the  hard,  harsh  letter  passed  away.  Some  of 
them  have  now  fared  farther  than  notable  avowed 
Modernists  themselves  ;  their  position  would  be  more 
accurately  described  as  theosophic,  or  Christian  in  a 
more  or  less  esoteric  sense,  some  would  say.  I  have 
not  known  or  heard  of  any  who  passed  over  to  Pro- 
testantism. Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  have  I  known 
of  any  Protestant  more  or  less  similarly  placed  who 
accepted  Catholicism  as  popularly  preached,  or  even 
philosophically  presented.  The  path  in  either  case  is 
towards  mysticism  or  theosophy.  Unfortunately  both 
these  terms  have  been  sadly  misapphed  in  latter 
years  in  some  quarters,  but,  taken  in  the  old  and 
long  accepted  sense,  the  position  is  made  tolerably 
clear. 

Candid  Irish  priests,  young  men  mainly,  who  would 


IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM      205 

not  actually  class  themselves  as  Modernists,  have  ad- 
mitted for  years  that  the  Church  in  Ireland  was  in 
the  way  of  losing  thousands  of  the  rising  laity.  They 
did  not  mean  by  this  that  episcopal  or  clerical  auto- 
cracy would  drive  them  away  or  render  them  in- 
different. They  had  hopes  that,  possibly  after  mis- 
understandings and  struggles,  this  trouble  would  pass, 
and  there  would  come  a  clear  and  tolerant  under- 
standing of  the  respective  rights  of  clergy  and  laity 
in  Church  and  state.  The  difficulty  went  far  deeper. 
The  way  in  which  Catholicism  was  frequently  preached 
and  presented  in  Ireland  was  deplorable  or  forbidding. 
How  to  deal  with  that  was  the  really  serious  problem. 
"  Too  much  formalism,"  said  one ;  "  insistence  on  an 
officialism  that  Churchmen  have  had  to  abandon  out- 
side Ireland,"  said  another ;  ''  giving  the  fooHsh  and 
false  impression  that  the  Church  is  an  intellectual 
despotism,"  said  a  third ;  "  a  disastrous  neglect  to 
spread  Catholic  philosophy,  to  expound  the  philo- 
sophic basis  of  Catholicism,"  and  so  on.  I  give 
points  and  views  that  I  have  heard,  some  of  them 
again  and  again,  in  the  last  ten  years.  AU  the 
speakers  admitted  the  need  for  revision  or  even  re- 
volution of  old  explanations,  the  popularising  of 
Catholic  philosophy,  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
the  preservation  of  Cathohcism  in  Ireland  could  not 
continue  to  depend  on  an  imperfectly  educated  priest- 
hood and  a  semi-illiterate  laity  :  there  ought  to  be 
an  educated  priesthood  and  an  educated  laity  ;  Ire- 
land should  be  able  to  show  Catholicity  at  its  best, 
intellectually  and  socially,  and  not  at  its  worst. 
These  priests  admitted  at  the  same  time  that  the 
bishops  generally,   and  the  great  majority  of  the 


4^ 


206     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

clergy,  had  not  the  dimmest  understanding  of  any 
such  needs.  In  themselves  they  did  not  feel  a  call 
to  the  missions  suggested,  and  they  did  not  dream 
that  they  were  needed.  They  were  as  much  sur- 
prised at  the  suggestion  as  judges  might  be  were  they 
asked  to  go  forth  and  teach  law  in  attractive  style  to 
the  multitude.  To  them  the  Church  intellectually 
had  come  to  mean  a  great  caste  apart,  which  indeed 
the  multitude  was  privileged  to  approach  and  be 
given  what  was  considered  good  for  it.  That  the 
masses  wanted  more  they  could  not  be  made  to 
realise.  They  knew  indeed  that  some  presumptuous 
people  demanded  more  scope  and  power  in  social  and 
national  affairs  which  Churchmen  had  long  regulated 
and  directed  ;  but  these  were  obviously  inspired  by 
"  anti-clerics."  That  young  members  of  the  laity 
had  grown  disturbed  or  curious  over  philosophical  or 
theological  issues,  speculated  for  themselves  on  the 
deepest  mysteries  of  Ufe  and  the  purport  of  the  uni- 
verse, or  found  subtle  guides  and  teachers — this  was 
simply  unrealisable  by  their  consciousness.  Never- 
theless it  was  a  reality.  The  Modernist  mood  was 
abroad,  as  well  as  personaHties  to  whom  Modernism 
was  more  definite  than  a  mood.  It  came  within  my 
own  experience  from  both  the  lay  and  the  clerical 
quarters. 

However,  a  good  deal  of  it  only  arose  incidentally 
or  indirectly  in  the  clash  with  conservative  ecclesi- 
astics over  national,  educational,  or  social  issues,  and 
part  of  it  would  scarcely  be  described  as  Modernism 
outside  Ireland.  The  progressive  clerical  view,  often 
expressed  in  our  columns,  that  Churchmen  were  not 
the  Church,  that  they  might,  and  did,  prove  painfully 


IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM      207 

fallible  though  the  "  Church  "  herself  (of  course  in  a 
subtle  spiritual  sense)  was  always  right,  that  one 
might  quarrel  with  every  priest  and  bishop  in  Ireland 
and  still  remain  a  loyal  member  of  (the  mystic  body 
or  spiritual  organism  called)  the  Church — this  to  other 
clerics  was  sheer  Modernism.  In  the  struggle  with 
ultramontanism,  repressive  ecclesiasticism,  and  clerical 
formalism  generally,  points  from  Newman's  "  Letter 
to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk"  on  Papal  Infallibihty 
were  quoted  in  our  pages  and  proved  exceedingly 
serviceable,  but  some  of  them — such  as  the  declara- 
tion that  the  Pope  had  no  power  or  authority  over 
the  conscience  of  any  Catholic,  that  if  the  Pope 
ordered  one  thing  and  conscience  urged  another,  we 
would  be  bound  to  follow  conscience — came  also  to 
be  treated  as  Modernism.  Even  the  reminder  of  what 
Newman  regarded  as  too  obvious  to  demand  argu- 
ment, the  fact  that  sundry  Papal  excommunications 
had  been  wrong  or  unjustifiable  was  Modernistic 
heresy  to  some  of  our  Irish  pillars  of  ultramontanism, 
while  in  late  years  Newman's  general  setting  forth  of 
the  limitation  of  Papal  infalUbiUty,  and  indeed  autho- 
rity, was  miacceptable  and  unbearable  in  the  same 
quarters.  Some  of  us  sometimes  urged  in  quiet,  in- 
formal discussions  that  the  trouble  about  infalhbihty 
would  settle  itself  if  ecclesiastics  and  laics  would 
think  more  of  Christianity  as  a  Way  of  Life,  would 
go  on  trying  to  apply  it  resolutely  to  everyday 
problems  and  existence,  at  the  same  time  doing  their 
utmost  to  cultivate  and  develop  the  best  in  their 
psychic  and  spiritual  selves  ;  eventually,  after  many 
generations  or  ages  of  such  living  and  training,  Chris- 
tians would  have  developed  so  much  divinity  and 


208     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

realised  so  much  divine  knowledge  that  they  would 
be  virtually  infallible  so  far  as  the  issues  of  our  present 
planes  were  concerned  ;  at  the  same  time  they  would 
have  acquired  so  much  gentleness  and  sweetness  and 
real  charity,  and  so  ecstatic  a  sense  of  still  more 
mystic  planes  and  knowledge  before  them,  that  none 
of  them  would  dream  of  coercing  anybody  else.  But 
this  also,  to  some  minds,  was  Modernism.  They  be- 
lieved that  here  and  now  not  only  has  one  order  of 
ecclesiastics  all  the  Truth,  but  must  be  regarded  as 
practically  infallible  in  the  intellectual  expression  of 
any  fact  or  phase  of  that  truth  at  any  and  every 
stage.  Some  of  course  would  not  go  so  far  ;  they 
would  say  that  only  the  Head  of  the  Church,  speaking 
ex  cathedra,  was  infallible.  But  in  Ireland,  as  we 
often  pointed  out,  we  were  expected  in  practice  to 
accept  a  doctrine  of  episcopal  and  clerical  infallibility 
in  theological,  or  even  in  secular,  affairs.  As  to  the 
broader  puzzle  arising  from  the  fact  that  Popes  had 
differed  from  Popes,  and  that  the  Church  had  not 
always  taught  quite  the  same  things,  the  answering 
was  subtle  and  intricate.  It  might  perhaps  be  thus 
summed  up  :  the  Church  (some  said  Churchmen  only) 
might  be  fallible  or  uncertain  in  time  but  was  eter- 
nally right.  And  as  this  seemed  to  bring  us  back 
from  the  visible,  the  intellectual,  the  working  Church, 
to  a  Johannic  or  esoteric  or  theosophic  conception  of 
the  Church,  the  problem  grew  too  subtle  for  mere 
discussion  there  and  then. 

All  the  same  I  heard  much  Modernism  of  a  more 
definite  and  everyday  order.  Fascinating  disquisi- 
tions on  the  Light  that  enlighteneth  every  man  would 
be  followed  by  vivid  pictures  of  the  alarm  and  con- 


IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM      209 

fusion  of  the  older  and  conservative  Vatican  ecclesi- 
astics who  were  trying  to  force  the  Pope's  hand  against 
the  Modernising  reformers — this  was  before  the  issue 
of  the  EncycHcal — and  the  pictures  would  lead  to  the 
bold  (lay)  proposal  that  Irish  Modernists  should  enter 
into  communion  with  the  Greek  Church  when  Rome 
had  driven  them  forth  from  her  fold.  Friends  treated 
this  scheme  with  a  certain  levity.  "  Why  not  an 
independent  Irish  Church  1  "  some  said.  A  Pro- 
testant Canon  and  others  had  urged  in  the  Peasant 
that  various  Catholics  and  Protestants  might  well  be 
content  to  caU  themselves  Celtic  Christians,  and  of 
course  emulate  the  spirit  and  independence  of  Celtic 
Christianity  in  its  finest  ages.  Certain  Catholic  clerics 
were  now  attracted  and  fascinated  by  phases  of 
Modernism,  anon  fearful  that  the  leaders  would  prove 
impulsive  and  imprudent.  A  Maynooth  contributor 
to  the  Peasant  underwent  curious  experiences.  In 
July  1907  he  was  critical  over  some  things  in 
Modernism,  enthusiastic  about  others.  "  There  are," 
he  said,  "  in  the  writings  of  Father  T3rrrell  especially, 
some  philosophic  passages  which  appeal  to  the  re- 
ligious consciousness  with  the  clearness  of  a  trumpet 
call.  Dr.  Hogan  and  Dr.  Coghlan  [not  exactly  ad- 
vanced Maynooth  men]  would,  we  are  sure,  be  among 
the  foremost  in  lauding  the  many  admitted  excel- 
lences of  the  Immanentists.  Father  Tyrrell's  writings 
are  not  all  gold  ;  neither  are  they  all  dross.  .  .  .  Dr. 
Coghlan  is  certainly  doing  one  man's  part  towards 
refining  from  out  the  bullion  the  pure  ore."  In 
August  he  thought  that  the  Immanentistic  h3^o- 
thesis  might  "  furnish  a  clue  to  the  correct  theory 
concerning  the  evolution  of  rehgion."    Having  read 

o 


210     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

the  Encyclical  against  Modernism,  he  wrote  thus  in 
our  issue  of  October  5  : — 

"  The  Immanentistic  system  cannot  fail  to  derive 
considerable  benefit  from  the  priming  to  which  it  has 
been  officially  subjected.  We  yield  to  no  man  in  our 
admiration  for  the  leaders  of  the  great  rehgious  move- 
ment which  to-day  everywhere  vitaUses  the  Church. 
But  when  the  liberty  of  the  prophets  was  degenerating 
into  hcence  a  little  comb-cutting  was  advisable.  How 
imperative  it  was  on  the  Holy  Office  to  take  active 
measures  may  be  judged  from  the  last  error  con- 
demned in  the  Syllabus  :  '  Modern  CathoHcity  can  be 
reconciled  with  true  science  only  by  transforming 
it  into  non-dogmatic  Christianity,  that  is,  mto  a 
broad  and  liberal  Protestantism ' — which  bangeth 
Banagher."  The  latter  phrase,  a  httle  coUoquial 
for  a  Maynooth  man,  especially  when  deahng  with 
Rome  and  Modernism,  was  in  allusion  to  the  country 
saying :  "  That  beats  (or  bangs)  Banagher,  and 
Banagher  beats  the  Devil." 

The  judgment  challenged  that  picturesque  persona- 
lity, Uilham  Mac  Giolla  Bride,  the  Hon.  William 
Gibson,  Lord  Ashbourne's  heir,  and  he  wrote  the 
following  week  : — 

"  Your  contributor  .  .  .  gives  your  readers  to 
understand  that  the  docrmient  was  badly  needed. 
Now  it  is  certain  that  some  of  the  propositions  con- 
demned would  deserve  condemnation  if  put  forward 
by  any  sane  man,  but  it  is  no  less  certain  that  the 
Syllabus,  as  a  whole,  cannot  be  described  as  giving 
ground  for  an  equally  clear  explanation.  Many  of 
the  positions  there  taken  up  would  not  be  understood 
outside  the  schools,  and  some  of  the  condemnations 


IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM      211 

are  calculated  to  have  a  rather  pecuhar  effect  on  the 
public  mind.  Poor  Cardinal  Newman,  for  instance, 
comes  in  for  some  rough  handling.  The  proposition, 
for  example,  that '  the  certitude  which  precedes  faith 
is  based  on  an  accimiulation  of  probabilities,"  is  funda- 
mental in  Newman's  philosophy,  and  it  is  condemned. 
So  also  is  the  idea  of  the  development  of  doctrine,  as 
Newman  held  it.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  late  Car- 
dinal went  the  whole  length  of  some  of  the  positions 
that  have  been  taken  up,  but  he  went  further  than 
is  allowed  by  the  recent  Syllabus  and  EncycHcal.  I 
may  add  that  his  statements  about  conscience  in  the 
famous  '  Letter  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk '  can  no 
longer  be  held  by  those  who  wish  to  bring  them- 
selves into  agreement  with  the  Holy  Father. 

"  But  it  is  not  only  in  the  case  of  Newman  that  the 
issue  of  these  documents  may  result  in  curious  situa- 
tions. Pius  X.  assumes  throughout  that  there  is  some 
kind  of  identity  between  the  apologetic  of  the  Church 
schools  and  the  apologetic  which  reaches  actual  minds 
in  the  outside  world.  Minds,  that  is  to  say,  with 
which  it  is  necessary  really  to  reason  about  the  founda- 
tions of  things.  Now  the  present  writer  has  had 
much  experience  in  this  matter,  and  he  does  not  re- 
member ever  to  have  met  a  case  in  which  an  effective 
appeal  has  been  made  by  the  scholastic  method  of 
reasoning.  He  has  known  those  who  have  swallowed 
the  scholastic  system,  with  other  things,  in  receiving 
the  faith,  but  he  has  never  seen  it  appHed  success- 
fully, previous  to  that  reception,  as  a  method  of 
persuasion. 

"  The  fact  is  that  the  scholastic  training  of  the 
clergy  does  not  seem  to  be  intended  for  serious  out- 


212     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

side  use.  Occasionally  the  results  of  it  appear  in 
public,  and,  as  often  as  not,  they  give  scandal  to  the 
uninitiated.  But  it  is  obvious  that  this  form  of  edu- 
cation is  intended,  chiefly,  as  a  preparation  for  the 
purely  professional  details  of  the  clerical  career.  Like 
the  rules  of  a  trades  union,  or  the  apron  of  a  Free- 
mason, it  tends  to  mark  off  the  clergyman  from  his 
fellow-men. 

"  To  those  who  may  be  troubled  by  the  recent  gift 
from  the  Vatican,  I  may  remark  that  the  most  ex- 
treme exponent  of  the  ultramontane  point  of  view 
would  hardly  dream  of  applying  to  these  utterances 
the  sanction  of  infallibility,  and  that,  if  he  did,  his 
position  could  not  be  sustained  historically.  Conse- 
quently, neither  the  accuracy  nor  the  orthodoxy  of 
the  documents  is  guaranteed.  There  may  be  heresies 
in  them,  and  in  that  case  they  will  end  in  condem- 
nation by  the  Church.'' 

Our  Maynooth  friend  did  not  reply  directly  or 
ostensibly  to  Mr.  Gibson,  but  in  the  course  of  an 
article  in  our  succeeding  issue  he  returned  to  the 
question  of  the  Vatican  and  Modernism,  and  illus- 
trated his  own  way  of  walking  back  from  his 
difficulty  : — 

"  Of  course,  neither  Syllabus  nor  EncycHcal  is  an 
infallible  utterance.  This  we  have  on  the  authority 
of  a  learned  Canonist.  But  henceforward  for  all 
loyal  Catholics  Immanentism  is  but  a  memory.  Of 
course,  what  is  not  infallible  may  be  erroneous.  But 
paternal  authority  is  never  infallible,  and  yet  is  to  be 
obeyed,  though  at  the  moment  we  cannot  very  well 
see  the  wisdom  of  the  mandate.  The  outrageous 
terminology  of  many  Modernists  and  the  admittedly 


IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM      213 

pernicious  doctrines  of  others  disturbed  the  atmo- 
spheric conditions,  and  this  bolt  from  the  bkie  is  the 
result.  Immanentists  may  rest  assured  that  what- 
ever of  truth  was  in  their  system  will  be  in  time 
assimilated  by  the  guardian  of  all  truth.  Contumacy 
on  the  part  of  the  former  supporters  of  the  condemned 
system  is  the  very  best  method  of  unduly  delaying 
the  process  of  assimilation." 

In  the  same  article  the  writer  referred  to  Neo- 
Scholasticism,  apropos  a  Maynooth  man's  translation 
of  Dr.  De  Wulf's  introduction  to  scholastic  philo- 
sophy, ScJiolasticism  Old  and  New.  Apparently  in 
order  to  give  Mr.  Gibson  hope  he  quoted  Dr.  De 
Wulf :  "  The  new  scholasticism  must  be  able  to 
fit  in  with  all  the  advances  made,  and  must  open 
wide  its  arms  to  all  the  rich  fruits  of  modern 
culture."  Mr.  Gibson,  and  others,  were  not  made 
hopeful. 

By  the  way,  in  the  Ireland  that  is  coming  to  her- 
self and  doing  things  Mr.  Gibson  is  easily  the  most 
picturesque,  the  most  social,  and  yet  in  some  respects 
the  most  elusive  individuality.  In  his  Gaelic  garb 
he  goes  everywhere.  He  is  the  Happy  Traveller  and 
philosophic  enthusiast  of  Gaeldom.  He  tours  urban 
and  rural  Ireland  delightedly,  from  club  to  cabin, 
from  Feis  to  farm,  from  tlie  haunts  of  theologians  to 
United  Irish  League  platforms,  on  some  mysterious 
principle  of  his  own.  One  never  quite  knows  where 
he  will  re-appear  next.  And  his  Irish  orbit  is  one 
within  a  larger  orbit,  which  takes  him  through  Wales, 
London,  Paris,  Rome,  &c.  Mentally  and  philosophi- 
cally his  travels  have  also  been  varied.  Educated  at 
Harrow,  Trinity  College  (Dublin),  and  Oxford,  he 


214     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

mastered  the  Positivist  philosophy  of  Comte  at 
T.C.D.,  and  went  with  it  to  Oxford,  where  he 
joined  the  Catholic  Church,  having  recognised  in  it 
the  natural  outcome  of  this  line  of  thought.  In  1896 
he  published  The  Abbe  de  Lamennais  and  the 
Liberal  Catholic  Movement  in  France,  In  1898-99 
he  took  part  in  the  discussions  in  Rouen,  Paris,  and 
London  apropos  the  condemnation  of  "  Ameri- 
canism "  by  Leo  XIIL,  and  in  May  1899  he  con- 
tributed to  the  Nineteenth  Century  an  article  entitled 
"  An  Outburst  of  Activity  in  the  Roman  Congrega- 
tions," which  led  to  bitter  attacks  upon  him  in  the 
Civitta  Cattolica  and  elsewhere.  In  the  same  period 
he  translated  Plato  and  Darwin  by  the  Abbe  M. 
Hebert,  and  wrote  a  philosophical  introduction  to  it. 
It  is  a  short  dialogue  setting  forth  one  side  of  the 
French  Liberal  Catholic  position.  The  condemnation 
of  Dr.  Mivart  made  it  difficult  for  him  for  the  moment 
to  continue  in  this  line  of  activity,  and  he  turned  his 
attention  to  the  Irish  language  movement.  He  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  Liberal  Catholicism  would  be 
impossible  in  these  countries  so  long  as  the  Catholic 
people  were  wanting  in  self-respect  and  national  indi- 
viduality. This  Kne  of  thought  gradually  led  him  to 
realise  all  the  force  and  possibilities  of  the  Irish  lan- 
guage revival.  He  was  then  much  in  London.  About 
the  same  time  Mr.  George  Moore,  also  in  London, 
heard  something  of  home  developments,  and  was 
drawn  for  a  different  reason  to  the  Irish  movement. 
Mr.  Moore  proclaimed  the  fact  to  the  world  but  did 
not  learn  Irish ;  Mr.  Gibson  said  nothing  to  the  world 
but  learned  Irish.  The  condemnation  of  his  friend 
the  Abbe  Loisy  sent  him  once  more  to  the  realm  of 


IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM      215 

historico- theological  discussion.  He  writes  much  in 
the  French  press,  and  has  published  one  book  in 
French,  L'Eglise  libre  dans  VEtat  lihre  (Paris,  1907). 
When  the  storm  created  by  the  Papal  EncycHcal 
against  Modernism  had  subsided  his  ardour  in  the 
cause  seemed  to  wane  ;  eventually  to  all  appearance 
he  made  friends  with  the  Vatican,  and  gave  more  of 
his  thought  and  energy  to  Ireland.  He  was  eager  and 
active  during  the  University  struggle  ;  for  years  he  has 
been  one  of  the  most  zealous  members  of  the  Gaelic 
League  executive.  He  is  on  the  whole  the  most  re- 
markable type  of  the  Irishman  who,  long  engaged  in 
other  and  far  different  activities,  has  been  attracted 
and  re-moulded  mentally  by  the  spell  of  the  newer 
Ireland.  For  some  years  a  number  of  our  ecclesi- 
astics looked  upon  him  with  a  certain  suspicion  and 
awe,  but  his  serene  humanity  gradually  calmed  many 
fears  and  softened  sundry  prejudices.  He  is  loved  of 
the  masses  ;  he  looks  and  speaks  like  a  chief  of  other 
times.  He  has  taken  a  cottage  in  remote  Clochaneely, 
in  Donegal,  near  the  haunt  of  the  Gaelic  College 
already  referred  to,  and  there  he  retires  when  he  has 
had  overmuch  of  Dublin,  London,  Paris,  Rome,  and 
elsewhere,  and  desires  to  brood  over  his  bearings  in 
the  social  and  spiritual  universe. 

During  the  years  of  the  University  battle  we  heard 
less  of  Modernism,  but  the  mood  was  there ;  books 
like  Father  TyrrelFs  MedicBvaUsm  passed  round 
amongst  young  laymen,  and  clericalism  and  scholas- 
ticism were  met  and  questioned  at  various  stages. 
Few  things  ever  printed  in  the  Irish  Nation  caused 
more  resentment  amongst  conservative  and  even 
moderate  clerics  than  an  article  at  the  time  of  Father 


216     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

Tjrrrell's  death.  By  way  of  illustration  I  may  here 
give  the  brief  opening  paragraph  : — 

"  The  death  of  Father  Tyrrell  removes  an  able  and 
devoted  Irishman  but  little  known  to  the  masses  in 
his  own  land,  though  his  influence  on  some  minds  in 
Ireland  —  Maynooth  included  —  was  considerable. 
Those  who  have  read  any  of  his  penetrative  and 
reverent  books  will  readily  understand  the  secret  and 
scope  of  the  influence.  At  first  sight  the  non-eccle- 
siastical mind  is  puzzled  at  the  idea  of  the  term 
'  Modernist '  being  applied  to  a  man  like  Father 
Tyrrell,  for  he  seems  palpably  to  express  the  spirit 
of  the  old  and  enlightened  Catholicism ;  there  is 
nothing  new-fangled  about  it ;  the  underlying  essence 
appears  to  be  as  old  as  the  Gospel.  He  passes  away 
in  the  year  that  saw  the  beatification  of  Joan  of  Arc, 
who  was  condemned  and  burned  as  a  heretic  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  Possibly  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  hun- 
dred years  the  world  may  witness  a  similarly  revo- 
lutionary justification  of  Father  Tjn-Tell." 

The  remainder  of  the  article  was  mainly  an  illus- 
tration of  Father  Tyrrell's  faith  and  philosophy,  as 
shown  in  A  Much- Abused  Letter  and  Medicevalism,  for 
the  most  part.  It  may  not  seem  very  revolutionary 
procedure,  but  it  was  described  in  public  and  private 
as  showing  the  hand  of  the  "  enemy  of  the  Church." 

One  further  illustration  of  the  meeting  of  the  more 
or  less  conservative  spirit  and  the  inquiring  or  modern 
spirit  in  the  Irish  Catholic  world  will  suffice.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  Maynooth  Union  in  1910  the  Rev. 
P.  MacSweeney,  M.A.,  who  had  edited  a  noted  Irish 
tale  for  the  Irish  Texts  Society,  dealt  with  neo- 
Catholic  movements  in  literature,  and  had  a  com- 


IRELAND   AND   MODERNISM      217 

paratively  good  word  to  say  for  the  "  pagan  world  " 
at  the  outset : — 

"  The  literature  of  primitive  Christianity  was  con- 
fronted with  a  pagan  literature  of  supreme  excellence. 
The  one  reached  excellence  by  the  intensity  of  the 
spiritual  conviction  which  it  embodied  ;  the  other  by 
its  profound  feeling  for  the  beauty  of  Nature  and  of 
Humanity.  The  antagonism  between  them  lay  not 
in  anything  that  was  literary,  but  in  the  fact  that 
one  presented  a  solution  of  the  mystery  that  en- 
shrouds the  world  compared  with  which  that  which 
the  other  presented  pales  into  insignificance." 

The  Irish  Nation  wondered  if  candid  specialists 
would  admit  that  there  was  any  such  striking  con- 
trast. Was  there  not  "  intensity  of  spiritual  convic- 
tion "  in  Hellenistic  theology,  before  the  Christian 
Era,  and  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  Era  ? 
The  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  or  Creative  Word,  for 
instance,  received  profound  exposition  amongst  the 
Greeks  of  Alexandria,  as  could  be  seen  from  Philo 
and  other  sources.  Did  not  early  and  famous  Chris- 
tian authorities  appeal  to  long  and  ancient  tradition 
to  show  that  they  taught  nothing  essentially  new, 
that  Christianity  was,  so  to  say,  a  great  restatement, 
not  an  innovation  ?  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen, 
and  others  might  be  appealed  to  on  this  point.  Was 
not  much  in  the  Pauline  epistles  themselves  reminis- 
cent of  a  far  older  world  ? 

To  questions  hke  these,  asked  of  course  not  in  a 
controversial  but  an  interested  spirit  consequent  on 
studies  and  reveries  that  had  given  a  new  colour  and 
largeness  to  numerous  lives,  none  of  our  clerical  con- 
tributors would  reply,  even  over  pen-names.     They 


218     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

wrote  on  various  questions  concerning  Church  and 
State,  from  clerical  school  management  at  home  to 
"  Le  Sillon  "  abroad,  siding  with  lay  contributors  or 
criticising  their  positions.  They  would  discuss  the 
duties  of  Churchmen  to  the  new  age  ;  they  were 
ready  to  admit  that  Irish  Catholicity  as  a  whole  had 
need  of  much  spiritualising  and  of  a  generous  infusion 
of  the  missionary  social  spirit.  But  apart  from  the 
realm  and  the  bearings  of  historical  Christianity,  they 
were  timid  or  uninterested.  Seminary  and  ecclesi- 
astical college  had  defined  the  universe  and  manldnd 
and  their  individual  selves  in  a  certain  strict  and 
limited  way,  and  they  could  scarcely  conceive  the 
possibility  of  a  deeper  or  wider  diagnosis.  Of  ancient 
mystical  realms  or  modern  psychic  discoveries  they 
were  scarcely  cognisant.  (Ireland's  main  authority 
on  psychical  research  is  a  Protestant. —Professor 
Barrett,  late  of  the  College  of  Science.)  From  ques- 
tions that  lay  friends  found  fascinating,  questions 
bearing  on  the  divinity  of  "  pagan  "  creeds,  ideals, 
and  teachers  ;  from  a  spiritual  or  idealistic  philosophy 
of  an  evolving,  ever-creative  universe ;  from  the 
theory  of  an  involutionary  and  evolutionary  religious 
progression  in  which  Christianity  is  one  sequent  part 
in  a  great  whole — from  all  these  they  shrank  in  public, 
and,  with  few  exceptions,  in  private,  save  in  rare 
expansive  moments.  It  was  difficult  to  discover 
what  those  priests  in  general  made  of  Christian  mys- 
ticism, what  they  understood,  intellectually  or  in- 
tuitively, by  the  "  Logos,"  or  by  "  Redemption,"  or 
by  the  teaching  of  their  own  Aquinas  that  the  Incar- 
nation ever  goes  on — the  "  Via  ad  Deiun  " — or  a 
hundred  other  truths.    A  declaration  by  an  excep- 


IRELAND  AND   MODERNISM      219 

tional  young  priest,  that  not  Modernism  but  mysti- 
cism in  the  true  sense  was  the  need,  seemed  pertinent. 
However,  all  these  questions  and  interests  arose  in 
days  and  nights  when  spirits  were  stirred  and 
heartened  by  several  others.  They  were  but  threads 
in  a  varied  pattern.  Anyway  life  is  something  richer 
and  more  mysterious  than  all  its  problems  and  ques- 
tions ;  even  now  we  live  on  several  planes.  So  when 
Modernists  and  anti-Modernists,  Platonists  and 
scholastics,  debated,  some  of  us  were  sometimes 
reminded  of  Mark  Twain's  point  about  the  discovery 
of  America.  Mark  said  that  there  was  nothing  very 
troublesome  or  very  wonderful  about  the  achieve- 
ment of  Columbus.  Just  by  setting  out  and  keeping 
right  on  he  was  bound  to  discover  America.  He 
could  not  possibly  miss  it.  So  just  by  going  on  with 
life,  at  the  highest  possible  state  of  consciousness, 
whether  through  one  spell  or  a  cyclic  series,  accord- 
ing to  the  different  theories,  we  came  nearer  to  Know- 
ledge. And  the  stages  of  learning,  even  the  elemen- 
tary ones,  had  their  own  fascination. 


CHAPTEE   XVII 

EVOLUTION 

I  REFER  in  other  pages  to  what  some  considered  the 
undue  attention  devoted  in  the  theatre  and  elsewhere 
to  the  peasantry.  This  question  came  before  us  in 
different  ways,  and  it  led  to  other  questions  on  which 
young  Ireland  appears  to  be  growing  increasingly 
curious.  A  typical  example  or  two  will  illustrate  the 
position.  Dr.  Hyde  in  a  lecture  to  the  Students' 
National  Literary  Society,  Dublin,  in  February  1910, 
put  forward  theories  of  folk-lore  and  kindred  matters 
that  were  keenly  discussed.  He  suggested  at  one 
stage  that  the  folk-tales  taken  down  from  the  lips  of 
some  peasant  in  his  hut  on  a  Connemara  mountain- 
side give  us  the  only  possible  clue  we  can  have  to  the 
moral  nature  of  the  prehistoric  inhabitants  of  Europe. 
Some  of  us  considered  that  there  are  different  as  well 
as  more  subtle  clues.  Again,  Dr.  Hyde  seemed  to 
have  no  doubt  that  folk-fancy  and  folk-tales  were  at 
the  bottom  of  all  literature  ;  that  they  had  laid  the 
earliest  germs  of  literature  ;  that  from  them  had 
sprung  the  epic,  the  drama,  and  the  novel.  Some 
were  puzzled  to  know  why  so  much  store  was  set  by 
the  folk-tales  and  so  little  by  antique  creations  of 
which  the  Orphic  Hymns,  the  Vedas,  &c.,  were  dif- 
ferent types  and  survivals.  Dr.  Hyde,  like  our  old 
friends  the  comparative  mythologists,  seemed  to  pos- 
tulate a  rude  and  primitive  primeval  world,  of  crude 


EVOLUTION  221 

and  untutored  fancies,  and  the  gradual  ascent  of  man 
from  barbarism  to  what  we  know  him  in  the  frag- 
ment of  earth-life  we  call  history.  It  was  urged  in 
reply  to  this  that  it  simply  did  not  tally,  for  one 
thing,  with  the  facts  of  history  as  they  had  begun 
to  be  seen  by  competent  and  candid  investigators. 
The  farther  back  we  explored  antique  Egyptian  story 
the  higher  were  the  evidences  of  civilisation,  and  on 
the  other  side  of  the  world,  delving  in  prehistoric 
America  we  found  traces  of  a  civilisation  to  which 
we  could  assign  no  beginning  ;  as  one  archaeologist 
had  said,  it  seemed  to  have  sprung,  like  Athena, 
fully  armed.  And  what  preceded  the  great  American, 
Egyptian,  Indian,  and  other  civilisations  ?  Again, 
on  the  evidence  available  it  was,  to  say  the  least, 
just  as  legitimate  to  hold  that  folk- tales — like  other 
backward  and  modest  things  in  the  world — were 
humble  or  degenerate  descendants  from  great  lore  of 
long-past  ages  and  races  as  that  the  greater  had 
ascended  from  the  less  and  the  lowly.  As  "A.  E." 
had  remarked,  a  folk-lore  was  the  tail-end  of  a  mytho- 
logy. Yet  this  did  not  mean  that  there  was  not 
evolution,  and  evolution  of  a  much  vaster  range  than 
most  latter-day  evolutionists  had  dreamed  ;  there 
might  be  cycles  of  ascent  and  descent  within  the 
greater  cycles.  As  to  folk-lore  regarded  as  the  de- 
generate and  down-drifting  descendant  of  far  nobler 
lore  we  had  plenty  of  evidence  of  similar  lapses  in 
history.  The  story  of  the  treatment  of  truths  in  the 
great  world-Scriptures  themselves  afforded  instances. 
Compared  with  Paul  or  Valentinus  or  our  own 
Johannes  Scotus  Erigena,  and  many  more,  Dr. 
Hyde's  Connemara  peasant  was  one  who  had  turned 


222     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

his  own  theology  into  folk-lore,  though  of  course  his 
spiritual  life  might  be  of  a  high  order.  And  to 
beings  on  higher  planes  the  Pauls  and  Erigenas  (as 
they  were)  might  seem  only  a  higher  order  of  folk- 
lorists  so  far  as  their  explanation  of  being  and  pheno- 
mena was  concerned. 

The  discussion  of  these  issues  in  the  Irish  Nation 
was  a  gentler  edition  of  the  discussions  in  private.  In 
both  spheres  the  debates  gradually  ranged  farther 
and  farther  afield.  One  point  emphasised  was  that 
some  of  the  most  ancient  ideas  of  man's  nature  and 
destiny  were  amongst  the  very  noblest  of  all,  India 
and  Egypt  supplying  a  wealth  of  examples.  Another 
was  that  even  were  it  quite  demonstrable — could  we 
trace  all  the  stages — that  man  in  his  earth-term  had 
evolved  step  by  step  from  nothing  apparently  higher 
than  an  animal-like  form,  we  would  be  no  clearer  as 
to  his  real  origin  and  essential  nature.  All  we  could 
say  was  that  when  the  mysterious  entity  reached  the 
plane  of  physical  matter — the  "  fall  into  matter,"  or 
one  phase  of  it,  of  the  old  mystic  books — he  assumed 
a  physical  vesture  with  more  or  less  of  the  animal 
vitahty  of  that  plane,  was  subject  more  or  less  to  the 
new  conditions  and  environment,  but  went  on 
evolving,  fulfilhng  his  mysterious  course  and  destiny. 
We  could  uot  conclude  with  any  pretence  of  philo- 
sophy that  he  originated  on  that  plane,  was  no  more 
in  essence  than  it,  and  fared  no  further  than  it.  Like 
a  visitor  to  Arctic  wastes,  who  must  clothe  himself 
in  new  fashion,  and  endure  trying  conditions  and  in 
a  sense  an  unsuitable  life,  we  could  not  at  all  explain 
him  if  we  looked  merely  to  the  vesture,  the  condi- 
tions, and  the  immediate  environment. 

And  this  led  to  the  point  that  the  modern  evolution 


EVOLUTION  223 

theory  was  but  fractional  as  compared  with  the 
ancient  Oriental  (and  other)  philosophy  of  man's 
nature  and  destiny.  The  modern  theory  only  fol- 
lowed the  outer  man  over  the  arc  of  a  circle — the 
physical  portion — and  tried,  as  a  rule,  and  of  course 
vainly,  to  interpret  everything  in  physical-plane  or 
material  terms  :  a  proceeding  on  the  futility  of  wliich 
Huxley  himself  had  uttered  a  warning.  The  ancient 
intuitions  and  philosophies  treated  of  the  whole  cycle, 
of  involution  and  evolution.  The  Gnostics  and  the 
Christian  mystics  carried  on  the  tradition  in  their 
own  way. 

On  these  issues  as  a  whole  clerical  writers  or  apolo- 
gists made  no  pubhc  pronouncements.  The  question 
of  the  civilisation  or  philosophy  of  the  far  distant 
past  did  not  apparently  attract  them  ;  I  doubt  that 
many  of  them  knew  anything  even  of  the  light  thrown 
in  modern  days  upon  Gnosticism.  One  or  another 
would  admit  in  private  a  deep  interest  in  old  Egyptian 
lore,  or  in  Erigena,  but  any  serious  study  of  Hindu, 
or  even  old  Celtic  philosophy,  appeared  to  be  con- 
fined to  lay  elements.  As  to  modern  evolution 
theories,  when  directly  challenged  about  them,  a 
clerical  controversiaHst  or  champion  would  step  for- 
ward to  illustrate  in  his  own  way  the  liberality  of 
Maynooth.     Thus  one  wrote  in  1910  : — 

"  I  was  present  at  the  thesis  for  the  Doctorate  of 
one  who  is  now  a  distinguished  professor  in  May- 
nooth, and  he  calmly  gave  out  before  the  Theological 
Faculty  that  a  Catholic  is  free  to  accept  the  theory 
that  man  is  descended  (or  has  ascended,  as  H.  Drum- 
mond  would  say)  from  the  lower  animals,  his  spiritual 
soul  excepted.'' 

It  was  said  in  the  Irish  Nation  that  this  did  not 


224     THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

seem  a  felicitous  way  of  expressing  it ;  that  the  seers 
and  teachers  of  many  ages,  from  the  Aryans  who 
thousands  of  years  ago  distinguished  clearly  between 
the  body  and  the  Dweller  in  the  body,  unfolded  it 
much  more  philosophically.  They  would  admit  at 
once  that  the  matter  of  which  man's  physical  body 
is  composed  is  the  same  as  that  of  which  the  bodies 
of  the  lower  animals  are  composed,  but  in  a  more 
advanced  state  of  development.  They  dealt  in  ex- 
haustive and  subtle  detail  with  the  evolution  of 
forms  and  the  involution  of  essences  over  vast  periods 
of  "  time."  Man's  psychic  body  or  personality  they 
saw  as  the  result  of  another  Hne  and  order  of  evolu- 
tion than  the  physical.  And  so  with  higher  elements 
— the  foregoing  was  but  the  beginning  of  their  subtle 
and  fascinating  philosophy  (and  intuition)  of  many- 
sided  involution  and  evolution.  To  say  that  "  Man  " 
has  either  ascended  or  descended  from  the  "  lower 
animals  "  was  to  express  a  fragment  of  a  truth  with 
great  crudeness.  One  would  never  expect  so  partial 
and  unphilosophical  a  statement  from  a  distinguished 
Maynooth  man.  And  even  he  did  not  discuss  the 
subject  for  the  benefit  of  the  pubHc. 

Generally  speaking,  official  Maynooth  seems  in  no 
hurry  to  deal  with  philosophical  or  psychical  or 
mystical  questions  in  which  so  much  of  the  rising 
generation  is  interested.  It  wants  to  go  on  believing 
that  Ireland  consists,  and  will  always  consist,  of  an 
incurious  Catholicism  headed  by  a  professional 
Catholicism. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

CLERICS  AS  CREATORS  OF   FOLK-LORE 

Many  of  the  Irish  Catholic  clergy  are  religious  folk- 
lorists.  Theologically  they  live  and  breathe  in  a  folk- 
lore atmosphere,  and  much  of  Catholicism  and  Church 
history  they  have  turned  into  folk-lore  pure  and 
simple.  Even  priests  addressing  fairly  well-educated 
congregations  adopt  the  folk-lore  habit  and  attitude. 
This  is  a  subject  on  which  candid  and  progressive  i 
priests  betray  both  concern  and  hesitancy.  They  de-  ^"^^^^ 
plore  the  position  and  all  it  implies,  but  the  thing  and 
the  tradition  have  gone  so  far  that  they  fear  any  de- 
cisive handling  of  the  evil  would  have  a  ruinous  effect 
on  the  mind  of  the  populace.  For  thousands  of  the 
people  by  this  time  cannot  distinguish  between  the 
folk-lore  and  essential  Catholicism,  between  moon- 
shine and  reahty.  So  the  would-be  reforming  clerics 
feel  that  they  must  walk  warily  and  delicately,  and 
certainly  they  do  so  ;  it  is  mostly  in  conversations 
with  kindred  spirits,  or  (to  a  less  extent)  in  a  study 
(concerning  "  Lives  of  the  Saints, ""  for  example),  in  an 
expensive  ecclesiastical  publication,  like  the  Irish 
Theological  Quarterly,  that  they  open  their  minds. 

Several  of  them  would  Hke  to  grapple  with  what  is 
known  as  the  cult  of  St.  Anthony.  "  I  hope  you 
don't  beheve  in  this  St.  Anthony  nonsense,"  said  a 
Meath  priest  to  me  at  an  early  stage  of  the  Boyne 
Valley  period,  and  he  proceeded  to  relieve  his  feelings 

225  g 


226     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

in  expressive  fashion  on  the  subject.  St.  Anthony,  as 
he  and  others  said,  had  become  well-nigh  the  central, 
most  immediate  figure,  or  at  least  intercessor,  in  the 
Christian  vision  of  great  numbers  in  Ireland.  People 
prayed  and  made  offerings  to  St.  Anthony  in  the  hope 
of  gaining  most  varied  ends,  some  of  them  very 
worldly.  Various  Irish  Catholics  describe  it  bluntly 
as  a  scandal ;  the  simple-minded  call  it  simple  faith. 
Far  wider,  more  extraordinary,  and  more  destruc- 
tive of  true  spirituality  is  the  folk-lore  conception  of 
St.  Patrick.  From  this  even  learned,  Irish-minded 
priests  find  it  difficult  to  get  away.  The  sermons, 
discourses,  and  books  on  St.  Patrick  in  Irish  are  on 
the  whole  very  little  better  than  those  in  English. 
St.  Patrick  has  been  made  a  sort  of  magician.  He 
found  a  crude  heathen  Ireland,  with  demons,  ser- 
pents, fantastic  if  powerful  druids,  a  populace  wor- 
shipping sticks  and  stones,  no  spirituality  and  of 
course  not  a  trace  of  philosophy  in  the  land.  He 
went  from  wonder  to  wonder,  he  conquered  all  before 
him,  he  made  conversions  to  Christianity  right  and 
left,  and  when  "  pagans  "  were  unusually  obdurate 
he  caused  the  ground  to  open  and  swallow  them,  or 
set  them  to  sleep  for  a  year,  or  adopted  some  other 
rough-and-ready  illustration  of  the  marvellous. 
Sometimes  the  order  is  not  quite  so  fantastic,  but 
it  is  nearly  always  highly-coloured  and  crude,  with 
nothing  really  spiritual  or  apostolic  about  it.  The 
romantic  and  dramatic  story  of  Patrick  and  the 
druids  at  Tara  is  taken  as  seriously  as  Genesis.  In- 
cidentally we  are  told  with  the  utmost  naivetd  how 
the  apostle  illustrated  the  idea  or  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  to  the  confusion  of  the  druids,  by  taldng  up 


CREATORS   OF   FOLK-LORE       227 

a  shamrock  and  pointing  to  its  three  leaves.  Tara 
was  a  royal  city,  and  if  we  can  assume  that  sham- 
rocks grew  therein  the  difficulty  remains  that  the 
shamrock  is  no  illustration  of  the  Trinity,  and  in  any 
case  this  very  ancient  idea  must  have  been  famihar 
to  the  druids  unless  they  had  much  degenerated  and 
forgotten  most  of  their  lore  and  philosophy  by  the 
fifth  century.  In  the  romantic  tale  itself,  curiously 
enough,  they  are  represented  as  exceedingly  wise  and 
powerful.  All  the  fantasy  about  Patrick  that  pre- 
vails in  clerical  and  rural  Ireland  were  long  to  tell. 
The  people  are  given  an  impossible  picture  of  Ireland 
and  her  destiny  before  his  arrival,  and  he  and  his 
work  are  deprived  of  all  human  interest  and  spiritual 
inspiration.  For  if  he  were  one  who  could  work 
wonders  as  he  willed,  and  strike  or  startle  rather  than 
appeal  to  soul  and  intellect — in  other  words  if  he  were 
not  one  who  had  developed  his  own  divinity  and  could 
appeal  to  the  latent  divinity  in  his  hearers — his  re- 
lation to  our  plane  and  our  problems  is  far  to  seek. 
But  to  doubt  the  wildest  and  crudest  mediaeval 
legends  about  Patrick  is  regarded  by  the  older  Irish 
clerics  as  unholy  scepticism  and  other  things.  Men 
of  high  abiUties  and  acumen  adopt  this  extraordinary 
attitude,  as  was  brought  home  to  me  acutely  on  more 
than  one  occasion.  Some  ten  years  ago  in  reviewing 
in  the  DubUn  Leader  a  quaint  little  bi-Hngual  book 
on  St.  Patrick  by  a  Redemptorist  Father,  I  ventured 
to  suggest  that  it  was  time  to  leave  the  cloTidy 
Patrick  of  legend  and  come  to  the  real  human  worker 
who  was  much  more  inspiring  and  interesting.  This 
moved  Canon  O'Leary,  the  most  popular  of  Irish 
writers,  to  pen  a  dehghtf  ul  but  deadly  earnest  diatribe 


228     THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

entitled  "  The  Sceptic."  When  I  urged  him  to 
answer  a  few  questions  regarding  the  sources  and  so 
on  of  the  wild  fiction  which  he  believed  had  been 
handed  down  as  solemn  and  sacred  truth  from  the 
fifth  century — there  was  silence.  The  discussion, 
such  as  it  was,  took  place  on  the  eve  of  the  annual 
Gaehc  festival  in  Dublin,  and  at  the  evening  musters 
there  was  a  deal  of  genial  discussion  amongst  laics 
and  clerics  on  the  whole  question,  opinion  being  very 
oddly  and  decidedly  divided.  The  discussion  was 
often  afterwards  renewed.  In  our  early  Boyne 
Valley  days  quite  a  sensation  was  caused  locally  by 
an  Irish  Peasant  leaderette  on  a  Patrician  sermon 
deUvered  by  the  rev.  President  of  the  Meath  Diocesan 
Seminary.  Friendly  priests  told  me  of  the  conster- 
nation of  old  and  grave  Churchmen,  but  local  laity 
seemed  greatly  to  enjoy  the  notion  of  ecclesiastics 
being  questioned  by  a  lay  voice  on  what  was  more 
or  less  their  own  gromid.  "  Well,  well,"  said  a  shop- 
keeper to  one  of  the  town  priests,  "  if  ye  don't  know 
the  truth  about  St.  Patrick,  what  do  ye  know  ?  " 
Yet  the  comment  was  very  gentle.  By  way  of  illus- 
trating what  the  older  Meath  priests  regarded  as 
dangerous  to  faith  and  authority  a  few  typical  sen- 
tences may  be  quoted  : — 

"  The  conventional  account  of  St.  Patrick  repre- 
sents him  as  a  sort  of  folk-lore  hero.  Obviously  that 
destroys  the  grand  and  touching  reality  of  St. 
Patrick's  life,  and  how  the  idea  persists,  in  spite  of 
St.  Patrick's  own  account  of  his  sufferings  and  labours 
and  trials,  we  know  not.  Father  Flynn,  in  the  elo- 
quent sermon  last  Sunday  reported  elsewhere,  went 
farther  than  any  eulogist  we  have  yet  heard  or  read, 


CREATORS   OF   T'OLK-LORE       229 

giving  a  picture  of  St.  Patrick's  progress  full  of  poetry 
and  colour,  yet  one  not  nearly  so  impressive  to  our 
minds  as  the  toiling,  suffering,  sore-beset  St.  Patrick 
of  the  realists.  Father  Flynn  assumes,  by  the  way, 
that  the  Ireland  to  which  St.  Patrick  came  was  a  place 
of  ignorance,  bondage,  and  idol-worship  of  a  common- 
place character.  In  view  of  what  modern  scholar- 
ship has  revealed  as  to  pre-Patrician  civilisation  this 
is  strange  enough  as  a  beginning.  Turning  then  to 
the  saint's  mission  in  Ireland  he  sees  in  it  a  triumphal 
progress,  all  Ireland  Christianised  at  the  close.  But 
St.  Patrick's  difficulties  in  Ireland  were  enormous, 
his  sufferings  were  intense,  and  he  was  very  far  from 
succeeding  in  converting  Ireland  generally.  He  has 
left  it  on  record  that  his  life  had  been  endangered 
twelve  times,  that  he  was  often  robbed  and  plundered, 
that  he  was  once  bound  in  fetters  for  fourteen  days, 
and  that  in  the  late  period  when  he  wrote  his  Con- 
fession he  was  living  in  poverty  and  misery.  We  do 
not  often  differ  from  idealists,  but  to  us  the  poetic 
story  of  St.  Patrick's  triumphal  progress  obscures  the 
real  drama  of  his  life,  with  its  heroic  courage  and 
noble  endurance." 

We  had  a  good  deal  of  amiable  battling  about 
St.  Patrick  and  kindred  questions  at  stage  after 
stage.  It  meant  more  than  it  seems.  Some  of  us 
saw,  and  young  priests  agreed  with  us  more  or  less, 
that  Catholic  clerics  generally  gave  the  people  an 
untenable  theory  of  Irish  history,  picturing  a  bar- 
barous people  suddenly  and  strangely  accepting 
Catholicism  and  ever  afterwards  destined  to  suffer 
and  strive  for  its  spreading  far  afield.  They  saw 
something  providential  in  the  whole  tragedy  of  Irish 


230     THE    POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

emigration — the  unfortunate,  untrained,  often  un- 
educated emigrants  passed,  in  their  view,  to  spread 
the  faith  in  distant  lands,  to  spiritualise  people  who 
would  smile  at  tlieir  philosophy  of  life.  Strangely 
enough,  those  emigrants,  avowedly  destined  to  con- 
vert and  inspire  the  strangers,  were  not  helped  to 
any  modern  means  of  culture  before  going  abroad — 
natural  education  was  not  theirs,  and  where  they 
had  something  of  it  even  free  libraries  were  often 
denied  them.  Ecclesiastics  living  in  a  cloudland 
would  let  the  historic  Irish  nation  go  to  pieces  for 
the  sake  of  an  illusion.  Some  of  the  theories  were 
well-nigh  incredible.  At  the  Irish  Catholic  Truth 
Society's  Conference  in  October  1906  a  Connacht 
bishop  spoke  with  burning  eloquence  of  Ireland's 
mission  to  the  heathen.  "  Standing  on  her  sea-girt 
rock  she  held  aloft  the  cross  of  faith  in  one  hand  and 
the  torch  of  science  in  the  other."  In  reference  to 
this  the  Irish  Peasant  said  that  we  had  as  high  an 
ideal  of  Ireland  as  anybody  living,  but  the  last  thing 
on  earth  we  could  honestly  claim  for  her  was  that 
she  held  aloft  the  torch  of  science  ;  if  she  really  did 
we  devoutly  wished  that  she  would  turn  it  now  and 
then  on  her  own  children.  The  bishop  went  on  to 
say  that  while  other  nations  were  straining  every 
nerve  to  acquire  wealth  and  were  offering  incense 
daily  before  the  altar  of  Mammon,  Ireland  was  satis- 
fied if  only  she  could  send  forth  her  missionaries  to 
bear  the  light  of  faith  to  nations  that  sit  in  darkness 
and  under  the  shadow  of  death.  Mr.  John  Dillon 
reminded  his  lordship  that  Ireland  had  to  build,  de- 
velop, and  foster  a  nation  within  her  own  shores. 
The  Irish  Peasant  said  it  would  be  fairly  well  satis- 


CREATORS   OF   FOLK-LORE       231 

fied  if  Ireland  could  preserve  an  Irish  character  and 
develop  a  distinctive  and  fruitful  life  within  her  four 
seas. 

Curiously  enough  the  last  number  of  the  suppressed 
Irish  Peasant  contained  a  good  deal  about  St.  Patrick 
and  incidentally  a  contemporary  cleric,  but  all  quite 
cordial  and  appreciative.  It  was  a  tribute  to  a  fine 
piece  of  work  by  Father  Dinneen — his  edition  of  the 
Latin  of  Patrick's  Confession,  with  Irish  and  Enghsh 
translations.  When  I  met  Father  Dinneen  in  Dubhn 
a  little  later  he  commented  on  the  curious  irony  of  a 
banned,  "  anti-clerical "  organ  going  out  with  a  tri- 
bute to  an  apostle  and  a  priest.  I  jestingly  reminded 
him  of  the  Irish  proverb,  "  Aithnigheann  ciar6g  ciar6g 
eile  ;  "  in  this  instance,  one  "  anti-cleric  "  recognises 
another,  for  he  had  just  proved  himself  an  insidious 
anti-cleric.  By  publishing  in  popular  form  St. 
Patrick's  own  reaHstic  and  touching  account  of  his 
sufferings  and  labours,  he  had  gone  far  to  destroy  the 
great  legend  which  bishops  and  priests  had  been 
building  up  for  generations  for  the  edification  of  the 
wondering  Irish  people.  Father  Dinneen  laughed, 
but  I  warned  him  that  even  as  he  laughed  there 
might  be  a  letter  from  Cardinal  Logue  at  his  pub- 
lisher's. 

But  it  seems  difficult  for  the  older  Irish  priests  to 
see  Irish  history  steadily  and  see  it  whole.  There 
would  appear  to  be  a  "  Roman  magic  "  as  well  as  a 
"  Celtic  magic."  The  most  popular  Irish  author  is 
a  case  in  point.  In  1907  Canon  O'Leary,  whose  Irish 
prose  as  prose  is  attractive  reading,  pubHshed  one  of 
his  longest  contributions  to  Irish  literature,  the  his- 
torical novel  entitled  Niamh.     It  deals  with  the  later 


232     THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

tenth  and  early  eleventh  century,  before  and  after 
the  battle  of  Clontarf.  It  is  charmingly  written,  but 
is  largely  a  sort  of  Munster  fairy-tale  about  Brian 
Boru,  though  sometimes  told  in  the  spirit  of  a  Norse 
saga.  There  is  much  to  say  at  an  early  stage  about 
the  mysterious  disappearance  of  a  beautiful  chaUce, 
which  is  declared  to  have  come  from  Rome  and  to 
have  been  presented  by  Brian  to  a  noted  monastery 
in  an  isle  of  the  Shannon.  The  mystery  of  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  treasure  occasions  much  anxiety  to 
a  Papal  legate  who  is  represented  as  visiting  Brian 
and  discussing  with  him  the  condition  of  Church  and 
State  in  Ireland.  He  is  made  to  aver  that  the  Pope 
and  all  Europe  are  watching  Brian  and  Ireland,  and 
are  profoundly  grateful  to  him  for  holding  the  Norse 
in  check,  preventing  them  from  establishing  them- 
selves in  these  islands,  and  being  in  a  position  thence 
to  threaten  and  overrun  all  Europe.  Here  the  fairy- 
tale becomes  obviously  extravagant.  Europe  had  so 
many  home  excitements  at  the  period  that  Ireland 
and  her  invaders  could  not  keenly  concern  it.  Still 
the  Canon  will  have  it  that  Brian — before  he  became 
Ard-Ri,  or  High-King,  and  years  before  Clontarf — 
was  looked  upon  as  the  bulwark  of  Europe  against 
the  foe  :  which  is  airy,  fairy  fiction.  At  a  dinner  in 
Ceann  Cora,  Brian  sounds  a  little  bell  and  proposes 
the  health  of  the  Pope,  which  the  company  drinks, 
afterwards  kneeling  to  receive  the  Pope's  blessing 
from  the  legate.  All  this  is  manifestly  modern.  The 
particular  year  and  the  particular  Pope  are  not  men- 
tioned— there  were  several  Popes  in  the  period  covered 
by  the  tale — but  Ireland's  interest  in  the  Pope  and  the 
Pope's  trust  in  Ireland  are  lovingly  emphasised.     Of 


CREATORS   OF   FOLK-LORE       233 

course  it  is  all  a  clerical  dream.  Canon  O'Leary  in  his 
innocence  does  not  seem  to  have  given  a  thought  to 
the  condition  of  the  Papacy  in  the  tenth  century — 
one  of  its  darkest  and  unhappiest  periods.  The  Popes 
who  had  time  or  inclination  to  think  in  those  melan- 
choly years  were  not  likely  to  be  concerned  about  our 
distant  isle.  These  pages,  typical  of  many  latter-day 
assumptions  and  pronouncements,  simply  carry  on 
the  great  illusion  beloved  by  so  many  of  our  older 
Irish  ecclesiastics.^ 

^  On  the  other  hand,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Turner,  in  a  recent  exhaustive 
article  in  the  Catholic  World  of  New  York  on  the  Celtic  element  in 
philosophy,  emphasises  the  pre-Christian  Celt's  philosophic  idealism  and 
the  ardent  and  even  inveterate  Platonism  of  the  Celt  after  the  coming  of 
Christianity  to  Ireland.  All  this,  of  course,  is  in  direct  contradiction  to 
the  usual  Irish  clerical  view.  By  the  way,  the  date  of  the  incised  tumuli 
on  the  Boyne  (New  Grange  or  Brugh  na  B(5inne)  was  lately  put  by  an 
expert  like  Mr.  George  Coffey  in  the  second  millennium  B.C.  These  colossal 
monuments  raise  several  fascinating  considerations.  They  are  amongst 
the  indices  of  the  past  which  make  the  theoi-y  of  pre-Christian  barbarism 
seem  foolish. 


CHAPTEE   XIX 

DRUIDS  INTERVENE 

"While  the  conservative  clerics  in  their  sermons,  dis- 
courses, magazines,  and  occasional  books,  carried  on 
with  lulling  solemnity  the  fostering  of  the  folk-lore 
idea  of  Irish  history  and  destiny,  very  different  Irish 
historical  authorities  were  at  work,  and  are  still  at 
work,  at  home  and  abroad.  jMrs.  J.  R.  Green,  Pro- 
fessor Eoin  MacNeill,  Mr.  H.  E.  Kenny  ("  Sean- 
GhaU  "),  and  others,  have  already  helped  to  change 
quite  a  number  of  conventional  or  traditional  views. 
Apart  from  these  I  had  e\ddence  of  the  uprising  of  a 
more  spiritual  and  esoteric  conception  of  Celtic  and 
later  Irish  factors  and  phases,  a  conception  which 
embarrassed  the  older  ecclesiastics,  and  though  some- 
times arresting  was  occasionally  disturbing  to  a  pro- 
portion of  the  more  forward  priests.  It  was  strongly 
manifested  in  connection  with  such  matters  as  the 
study  of  druids  and  druidism,  and  it  was  curious  on 
occasion  to  note  the  mingled  fascination  and  be- 
wilderment amongst  the  more  or  less  interested  laity. 
"  The  mystery  of  the  Celt,"  said  "  A.  E."  in  an 
early  lecture,  "  is  the  mystery  of  Amergin  the  Druid. 
All  Nature  speaks  through  him.  He  is  the  confidant 
of  her  secrets.  Her  mountains  have  been  more  to  hun 
than  a  feeling.  She  has  revealed  them  to  him  as  the 
home  of  her  brighter  children,  her  heroes  become  im- 
mortal.    For  him  her  streams  ripple  with  magical 


DRUIDS    INTERVENE  235 

life,  and  the  light  of  day  was  once  filled  with  more 
aerial  rainbow  wonder.  Though  thousands  of  years 
have  passed  since  this  mysterious  Druid  land  was  at 
its  noonday,  still  this  alliance  of  the  soul  of  man  and 
the  soul  of  Nature  more  or  less  manifestly  charac- 
terises the  people  of  the  isle.  .  .  .  What  was  the 
mysterious  glamour  of  the  Druid  age  ?  What  meant 
the  fires  on  the  mountains,  the  rainbow  glow  of  air, 
the  magic  life  in  water  and  earth,  but  that  the  Radi- 
ance of  Deity  was  shining  through  our  shadowy  world, 
that  it  mingled  with  and  was  perceived  along  with  the 
forms  we  know.  .  .  .  This  idea  of  man's  expansion 
into  divinity,  which  is  the  highest  teaching  of  every 
race,  is  one  which  shone  like  a  star  at  the  dawn  of 
our  Celtic  history  also.  Hero  after  hero  is  called 
away  by  a  voice  ringing  out  of  the  Land  of  Eternal 
Youth  [Tir  na  nOg  of  the  Celtic  stories],  which  is  but 
a  name  for  the  soul  of  earth,  the  enchantress  and 
mother  of  all." 

Here  some  readers  will  recall  a  world  of  Oriental 
philosophy,  and  something  of  that  of  a  modern  Uke 
Fechner.  In  a  good  deal  of  everyday  Irish  life,  especi- 
ally in  slum-poisoned  and  forlorn  towns,  or  amongst 
folk  obsessed  by  problems  and  cares,  one  might  think 
"  mysterious  glamour  "  was  a  rather  ironical  poetic 
invention,  and  that  the  alhance  of  the  soul  of  man 
and  the  soul  of  Nature  was  visionary.  Yet  on  a 
hundred  occasions,  at  the  Gaelic  festivals  and  other- 
wise, it  all  seemed  a  subtle  reahty.  French  and 
German  students  at  the  Gaehc  colleges  expressed  a 
sense  of  it  in  their  different  ways,  and  I  recall  the 
wonderment  of  a  Japanese  visitor,  who  declared  that 
in  Ireland  he  felt  in  the  presence  of  a  very  old  and 


236     THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

far-evolved  civilisation,  while  in  England  he  had  the 
feeling  of  being  in  a  land  which  only  lately  had  left 
crudity  and  young  barbaric  life.  But  this  is  by  the 
way.    We  must  return  to  our  druids. 

In  sermons,  lectures,  and  discussions  they  were 
much  with  us.  The  clergy  had  a  cloudy  or  misty 
view  of  them.  Sean  O'Ceallaigh,  an  excellent  writer 
of  Irish,  made  a  detailed  study  of  the  pictures  and 
references  in  Irish  traditions  and  tales,  but  he  took 
monks  and  mediaeval  annalists  too  seriously.  The 
monks  through  whose  hands  the  older  stories  passed 
had  little  knowledge  of  essential  druidism,  even  if 
they  could  have  taken  a  detached  and  impartial  view 
of  the  subject.  They  missed  the  significance  of  the 
symbolism,  "  magic,"  and  other  things  associated 
with  druidism.  Sean,  however,  brought  out  the  fact 
that  druidic  baptism  survived  the  introduction  of 
Christianity ;  indeed  much  in  the  real  druidism  long 
survived  ;  druids  and  early  Christians  had  apparently 
a  good  deal  in  common.  Contributors  to  the  Irish 
Nation  pointed  out  that  the  rehgion  of  the  druids  at 
their  height  had  the  stamp  of  divine  manliness  about 
it — recognised  the  infallibility  of  the  Higher  Law,  the 
inevitable  reaping  of  that  which  has  been  sown,  man's 
immortality  and  eternity  in  the  past  as  well  as  in 
the  future,  his  essential  spiritual  nature  and  that  of 
the  universe  :  it  saw  in  an  earth-life  and  the  mani- 
festation of  a  temporal  personality  (which  was  not 
the  real  Self  or  Higher  Man)  but  one  stage  in  the 
mjrriad  stages  of  the  cyclic  course  of  involution  and 
evolution. 

In  the  autumn  of  1910  I  gave  in  our  pages  a  story 
in  Irish  which  bore  directly  on  the  whole  fascinating 


DRUIDS    INTERVENE  237 

and  perplexing  question.  Its  purport  was  to  illus- 
trate what  really  happened  when  Patrick,  or  rather 
one  of  the  missionary  Patricks  of  whom  Irish  litera- 
ture and  tradition  have  to  tell,  arrived  in  Ireland. 
It  was  as  far  from  the  conventional  clerical  view  as 
could  well  be  imagined,  and  was  judged  accordingly 
— I  heard  a  good  deal  of  its  effect  in  certain  quarters 
where  it  was  read  or  translated.  I  know  that  its 
main  conclusions  and  philosophy  (which  have  their 
own  bearings  on  life  in  the  twentieth  century)  are 
those  of  many  in  new  Ireland,  so  a  summary  will 
serve  an  interpretative  purpose  and  show  incidentally 
that  we  do  not  lack  boldness.  I  may  explain,  for  the 
benefit  of  readers  not  well  versed  in  Patrician  lore 
and  criticism,  that  Irish  records  tell  of  a  Sean-Phad- 
raic,  or  Old  Patrick,  for  much  of  whose  work  some 
authorities  believe  the  traditional  Patrick  has  got  the 
credit.  Others  maintain  that  Patrick  and  the  un- 
successful Roman  missionary  Palladius,  were  one 
and  the  same.  In  the  story  it  is  assumed  that  Old 
Patrick  wrote  the  Confession,  and  was  a  simple- 
hearted,  single-minded  worker  whom  the  druids  could 
respect,  though  they  thought  his  philosophy  crude, 
and  that  Palladius-Patrick  was  a  disturbing,  narrow- 
minded  innovator,  one  of  the  newer  types  of  Christians 
— Roman  rather  than  Greek — who  had  lost  the  early 
vision  and  spirit  of  Christianity.  But  the  ideas  in  the 
story  were  the  main  point : — 

On  an  autumn  evening  in  the  j&fth  century,  Ciaran, 
a  young  student,  leaves  the  royal  city  of  Tara,  walks 
along  one  of  the  main  roads  for  a  while,  then  turns 
suddenly  and  passes  through  the  woods  and  fields 
towards  the  Boyne.     Bennaid,  the  incidental  heroine 


238     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

of  the  story,  watches  him  sadly  as  he  goes  forth  and 
wonders  at  his  growing  unrest  and  distraction. 

Ciaran  soHloquises,  as  he  goes  towards  the  Boyne, 
over  the  trouble  that  has  come  in  Tara  and  else- 
where. Already  Tara  is  preparing  for  the  great  Feis, 
or  assembly,  of  November,  at  which  the  burning 
question  of  the  disturbing  teaching  of  the  missionary 
Palladius,  in  Leinster,  is  to  be  discussed.  Ciaran 
thinks  for  the  moment  of  paying  a  visit  to  his  relative, 
Neachtan,  but  is  not  sure  of  the  actual  whereabouts  of 
that  learned  chief  and  tireless  traveller.  Neachtan 
has  seen  much  of  the  Continent  and  the  East,  is  an 
adept  in  Gnostic  and  Neo-Platonist  lore,  and  knows 
the  Bhagavad  Gita  quite  as  well  as  the  story  of  Cuchu- 
lainn.  He  is  the  author  of  a  poem  on  a  famous  en- 
chanted well,  and  of  a  treatise  on  the  Salmon  of 
Knowledge  (in  the  Boyne),  dwelling  in  each  instance 
on  the  esoteric  significance  of  the  theme. 

In  point  of  fact  Ciaran  encounters  Neachtan  under 
the  trees  by  the  Boyne — Neachtan  had  desired  to  see 
his  young  relative  and  had  sent  a  thought-messenger 
to  him  at  Tara  (if  I  may  express  it  roughly  and 
insufi&ciently). 

After  a  talk  on  thought-transference  and  other 
things  which,  Neachtan  says,  are  better  understood 
in  the  East,  Ciaran  mentions  his  own  great  trouble, 
arising  out  of  the  clash  of  old  faith  and  new. 

Neachtan  tells  him  that  he  is  mistaken,  that  there 
is  only  one  faith,  one  philosophy,  and  that  such  has 
ever  been  the  case.  When  Ciaran  expresses  surprise 
and  refers  to  the  disputation  between  certain  Chris- 
tians and  certain  druids,  Neachtan  replies  that  they 
only  dispute  over  names  and  rules,  over  history  and 


DRUIDS    INTERVENE  239 

formula,  but  Truth  and  Soul  remain  as  they  ever 
were.  He  admits,  however,  that  New  Christians,  like 
Palladius,  are  doing  harm.  They  are  not  so  well 
informed,  wise,  and  spiritual  as  the  first  Christians 
who  came  to  Eire  a  couple  of  hundred  years  earher, 
nor  indeed  as  the  Christians  as  they  had  known  them 
till  lately.  Much  the  same  trouble  has  been  growing 
on  the  Continent ;  most  of  the  Christians  have  been 
losing  the  true  philosophy  and  mysticism  they  origi- 
nally possessed.  But,  adds  Neachtan,  there  is  no 
need  to  say  more  on  the  matter,  as  the  issue  will  be 
fully  considered  during  the  Feis.  He  says  further 
that  he  wishes  all  men  would  do  their  life-work 
faithfully  and  honestly,  without  any  clash  or  con- 
troversy regarding  things  of  the  soul.  Men  cannot 
obtain  real  knowledge  about  the  soul  save  when  they 
are  peaceful,  charitable,  thoughtful,  looking  deeply 
into  themselves.  Hermes,  Buddha,  Krishna,  losa 
(Jesus),  Paul,  and  all  the  great  Teachers  have  im- 
pressed this  truth  on  the  race.  Incidentally  Neachtan 
explains  that  he  has  a  special  personal  reason  for 
desiring  peace  at  this  stage,  as  he  wants  to  write  a 
treatise  on  the  ancient  temples  at  Brugh  na  Boinne 
[New  Grange,  &c.,  on  the  north  of  the  Boyne  towards 
Drogheda]  and  their  symbols.  Friends  in  the  East 
are  keenly  interested  in  the  work. 

At  this  point  they  hear  people  approaching.  These 
prove  to  be  special  friends  of  Neachtan :  Seoghach, ' '  the 
Cheerful,"  and  Art,  "  the  Music-hearted,"  two  of  the 
most  learned  and  famous  sages  of  their  day.  Seoghach 
is  a  lively,  brawny  personage,  intensely  interested  in 
farming,  in  poetry,  in  philosophy,  in  art,  and  in 
psychic  study.     His  friend  Art  is  a  slender,  thought- 


240     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

ful  man  whose  great  passion  is  music,  which  brings 
him  vision  and  intuition  far  above  the  possibiKty  of 
intellectual  presentation. 

Neachtan  explains  the  trouble  of  Ciaran  between 
"  old  "  faith  and  "  new,"  and  how  he  has  been  im- 
pressing upon  him  the  fact  that  there  is  but  one 
faith  all  the  ages. 

There  is  indeed  but  one  Truth,  says  Seoghach,  as 
they  seat  themselves  by  the  river,  but  there  is  great 
difference  in  the  development  and  perception  of  the 
world's  peoples.  So  each  sees  a  particular  aspect  of 
truth  and  moulds  its  philosophy  accordingly.  The 
Greeks  realised  it  as  beauty,  the  Romans  as  power, 
the  Brahmins  as  metaphysics,  the  Buddhists  as  free- 
dom from  desire,  the  true  disciples  of  Jesus  as  love 
or  charity.  Each  is  good,  and  there  ought  to  be 
harmony  amongst  all,  even  as  unity  and  friendship 
obtain  amongst  musicians  and  historians  and  men 
of  the  laws  in  Tara. 

Art  says  it  has  ever  been  understood  in  Eire  that 
there  ought  to  be  no  contention  concerning  gods. 
It  were  as  senseless  as  contention  about  souls.  Many 
a  race  had  come  to  the  island  since  Atlantis  sank, 
but  in  the  course  of  time  the  gods  of  each  race  came 
to  be  appreciated  by  the  people  as  a  whole.  Never 
was  there  fighting  on  account  of  creed  till  the  neo- 
Christians  came.  He  himself  believes  that  the  in- 
tense love  of  music  in  the  people  had  ever  been  a 
blessing  and  a  bond  ;  the  music  brought  a  certain 
spiritual  understanding  and  underlying  unity. 

Neachtan  thinks  it  saddening  that  the  neo-Chris- 
tians  are  losing  the  early  spirit  and  cordiality.  Some 
are  actually  declaring  that  there  is  no  truth  but  theirs. 


DRUIDS   INTERVENE  241 

An  extraordinary  change  has  come  over  them  since 
the  time  of  Origen,  Clemens,  &c. — these  declared  that 
Christianity  was  like  every  great  creed  that  had  been 
in  the  world  before  it.  Which  of  course,  intervenes 
Seoghach,  was  quite  evident  to  anybody  who  knew 
much  of  the  ancient  world.  Augustine  had  admitted 
the  fact  in  the  previous  century.  Every  great 
Teacher's  message  was  the  same  in  essence,  and 
there  was  a  singular  similarity  in  the  careers  of  the 
Teachers  themselves.  All  that  is  as  clear  as  the 
water  of  the  Boyne,  whatever  the  neo-Christians 
may  say. 

Neachtan  expresses  his  fear  that  the  sages  of  Eire 
do  not  understand  the  new  position,  or  the  danger 
that  is  coming.  They  ever  had  such  welcome  for  a 
philosophy,  and  were  so  cordial  to  the  Christians  for 
years  that  they  think  not  there  is  cause  for  uneasi- 
ness. But  the  order  has  changed.  The  Christians 
on  the  Continent  have  been  growing  worldly,  haughty, 
and  fearless  since  the  time  of  Constantine.  Their 
leaders  and  clerics  have  come  to  set  less  store  by 
sanctity  and  philosophy  than  by  power  and  worldly 
riches.  It  is  difficult  to  say  what  they  have  in  view, 
but  they  are  no  friends  at  any  rate. 

What  can  they  do  against  us  ?  asks  Seoghach. 
They  are  not  heroes  ;  they  are  not  armed  hosts.  They 
cannot  seize  the  kingdom.  And  it  is  not  necessary  to 
trouble  about  the  strange  philosophy  they  have  now- 
adays, though  some  grow  angry  over  what  tliis  new 
arrival,  Palladius  or  Padraic,  has  to  say.  The  philo- 
sophy of  Old  Padraic  is  curious  enough,  but  he  him- 
self is  honest  and  spiritual.  His  Confession  is  good 
in  its  own  way.    But  this  new  Patrick  !     Sorrow,  not 


242     THE   POPE'S    GREEX    ISLAXD 

anger,  he  should  occasion.  Anybody  who  knows  the 
early  Christian  teaching — that  of  Jesus,  that  of  Paul 
— and  the  philosophy  of  such  mystical  books  as  the 
Pisfis  Sophia,  must  really  pity  Palladius. 

They  proceed  to  speak  about  the  Pistis  Sophia 
and  kindred  books.  Ciaran  listens  wonderingly.  It 
is  evident  that  everything  is  crystal-clear  to  the  trio, 
but  Ciaran  can  make  nothing  of  the  discourse.  They 
compare  mystical  books  of  the  early  Christians  with 
many  others  of  different  lands  and  ages,  but  Ciaran 
understands  no  better.  He  thinks  sadly  that  he  wiU 
never  understand  the  druid  lore.  He  grows  weary 
in  the  end.  He  hears  words  like  "  Logos," 
"  Pleroma,"  "  Atman,"  "  Theodidactoi,"  and  others 
still  stranger.  He  dozes  for  a  few  moments,  during 
which  he  has  a  wonderful  dream.  He  thinks  Bennaid 
is  beside  him  on  the  brink  of  the  Boyne,  looking  upon 
him  lovingly.  They  are  Hstening  to  the  trio,  and 
Ciaran  understands  every  word  !  All  is  clear  and 
simple.  He  awakes  with  a  feehng  of  dehght  in  his 
heart.  The  trio  are  talking  eagerly  and  learnedly, 
but  again  he  understands  not  a  word.  He  arises 
suddenly,  says  good-bye,  and  goes  back  to  Tara  and 
Bennaid.  There  is  a  happy  development,  which  does 
not  concern  oiu:  main  track. 

The  next  scene  brings  us  to  the  Feis  at  Tara. 
There  has  been  so  much  agitation  and  discussion 
throughout  the  land  concerning  the  pretensions  of  the 
neo-Christians  that  many  are  uneasy  as  to  temper 
and  developments  when  the  national  assembly  meets. 
But  as  ever  when  Gaels  foregather  they  inequitably 
grow  social  and  cordial.  Chiefs  and  sages  and 
scholars  and  artists  are  merged  in  the  eager  talkers 


DRUIDS   INTERVENE  243 

and  enlivening  friends.  Neachtan  declares  that  when 
the  social  fraternising  is  over,  and  the  crucial  business 
is  reached — w^th  Palladiiis  himself  to  the  fore — it  wiU 
be  the  same  story.  The  druids,  by  the  way  (in  Irish, 
Draoithe) ,  are  not  regarded  as  a  caste  but  as  speciahsts 
in  aU  the  learning  of  the  age. 

Laoghaire  (Laera),  the  king,  is  heartsome,  con- 
ciliatory, sweet-spoken,  diplomatic  as  usual.  But  at 
heart  he  is  anxious.  He  has  feared  for  a  long  time 
that  he  will  find  it  impossible  to  keep  the  peace 
between  the  estabhshed  order  and  the  neo-clerics. 
His  private  view  is  that  the  latter  are  rather  un- 
learned, unsocial,  and  disloyal.  But  he  Hkes  the 
traits  of  Old  Patrick  and  Christians  of  his  kind,  and 
he  thinks  that  the  neo-Christians  may  grow  even  as 
they.  The  GaeHc  civihsation  may  soften  and  mould 
them — he  has  seen  how  Old  Patrick  has  developed 
and  mellowed  under  its  influence  and  its  spirit.  Even 
so  may  be  the  progress  of  Palladius. 

Palladius  is  present.  Every  one  is  kindly  and 
friendly  to  him.  But  it  is  difficult  to  move  or  animate 
him.  He  is  inchned  to  taciturnity  and  to  testiness. 
He  finds  it  impossible  to  sit  still  or  Usten  at  stage 
after  stage  ;  he  rises  and  walks  uneasily  to  and  fro. 
His  voice  is  musical  when  he  is  satisfied ;  it  is  like  a 
scream  (sgreadach)  when  he  is  excited.  And  this  is 
often  the  order  in  the  course  of  the  Feis. 

When  the  crucial  matter  is  reached  the  king  urges 
all  to  be  considerate  and  calm.  The  question  to  be 
settled  is  simply  :  has  Palladius  been  doing  aught 
against  the  kingdom,  the  GaeUc  order  ?  It  is  best 
to  leave  matters  of  creed  alone.  Every  one  is  free 
in  this  regard,  and  the  sages  have  shown  that  the 


244     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

primal  facts,  the  guiding  thoughts,  of  the  great 
Teachers  have  been  the  same  since  the  beginning 
of  the  world.  The  seeming  differences  arise  from 
the  different  understanding  and  character  of  the  be- 
hevers.  There  are  no  root-differences,  only  differ- 
ences of  explanation.  Ever  in  their  island  home 
there  had  been  welcome  for  philosopher  and  philo- 
sophy, for  teacher  and  teaching,  for  thinker  and 
thought.  There  were  Houses  of  Hospitality  in  every 
province  {cilige),  but  strange  indeed  it  were  to  have 
houses  in  which  the  wayfarer  would  find  food  and 
drink,  had  they  not,  so  to  say,  their  Houses  of  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  Hospitahty  also. 

And  now  discussion  waxes  keen.  The  Leinster 
chiefs  are  hard  on  Palladius.  Some  from  Munster 
are  incHned  to  take  his  side  at  first ;  they  declare 
that  the  Christians  and  clerics  long  known  in  their 
region  are  as  loyal  and  fraternal  as  other  people. 
The  Leinster  men  point  out  that  there  is  a  very  great 
difference  between  Palladius  and  his  co-workers  and 
the  Old  Christians.  The  former  have  been  saying 
that  Irish  habits  and  customs  are  worthless,  that 
some  of  the  people  worship  stones,  that  others  adore 
the  sun,  though  everybody  ought  to  know  that  all 
visible  things  are  symbohcal,  symbols  of  the  unseen 
and  the  Real — as  the  druids  said  nobody  ever  beheld 
the  Real  Sun.  Leinster  chiefs  say  further  that  Palla- 
dius habitually  ridicules  the  druids,  though  it  is  plain 
that  he  does  not  understand  their  real  teaching  or  the 
essence  of  their  philosophy  ;  he  tells  quaint  stories  of 
imaginary  feats  he  has  performed  against  them ;  he 
boasts  that  he  will  drive  the  "  serpents  "  out  of  Eire. 
This  means,  the  chiefs  maintain,  that  he  desires  to 


DRUIDS   INTERVENE  245 

destroy  the  Gaelic  wisdom  and  philosophy,  for  the 
"  serpent  '*  habitually  symbolises  wisdom.  All  the 
philosophers,  and  those  who  raised  the  "  serpent- 
mounds,""  understood  that  truth.  According  to  Old 
Patrick  himself  losa  had  said,  "Be  ye  wise  as 
serpents."" 

The  speakers  declare  that  there  is  a  conspiracy 
afoot,  that  Palladius  is  in  league  with  imperial  Roman 
authorities,  that  he  is  trying  to  deceive  the  people, 
to  turn  them  from  their  own  customs  and  beliefs  so 
that  eventually  they  would  welcome  the  Romans  and 
accept  the  rule  of  Rome. 

Palladius  rises  excitedly  and  declares  that  he  has 
no  such  dream.  He  has  nothing  to  do  with  imperial 
Rome.  He  is  only  doing  his  best  to  preach  the  one 
Truth  to  the  people  and  to  bind  them  to  the  Church. 
It  is  time  for  them  to  be  members  of  the  Church. 
They  have  a  portion  of  the  Truth,  but  no  more  than 
a  portion. 

Seoghach  arises  and  questions  Palladius  about  the 
Truth.  He  asks  him  pointed  things  regarding 
Hermes,  Pythagoras,  Krishna,  Buddha,  and  their 
disciples ;  he  questions  him  on  the  ancient  wisdom 
and  the  many  civilisations.  Palladius  declares  that 
he  thinks  little  of  it  all ;  the  old  philosophers  and 
teachers  did  not  know  the  Truth.  Astonishment 
comes  over  the  druids.  Seoghach  refers  to  great 
phases  of  the  philosophy  of  the  East,  of  Egypt,  of 
Greece,  &c.  Palladius  admits  that  he  is  unlearned 
in  these  things,  but  cares  not.  The  wonderment  of 
the  assembly  increases. 

Neachtan  arises  and  shows  that  the  early  Christians 
were  at  one  with  the  great  philosophers  of  the  past. 


246     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

He  illustrates  this  by  statements  of  Paul,  Clement, 
Origen,  and  others.  Palladius  answers  that  these, 
and  the  Greek  Fathers  generally,  went  astray  at 
first.  Many  had  now  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
Origen  and  his  kind  were  in  a  sense  unchristian. 
They  beheved  in  re-incarnation  and  other  things 
unacceptable  to  the  leaders  of  the  Church  to-day. 

Even  the  diplomatic  and  careful  king  cannot  con- 
ceal his  astonishment  at  this.  Is  it  really  possible, 
he  asks,  that  Palladius  and  his  brethren  do  not  be- 
lieve in  re-incarnation  and  the  kindred  truths  bound 
up  with  it  ?  Most  of  them,  Palladius  says,  do  not 
believe  therein,  but  the  question  has  not  yet  been 
decided  by  the  Church.  But  the  world  knows,  says 
the  surprised  Laoghaire,  that  we  have  day  and  night, 
working  and  sleeping,  and  so  on  alternately,  and  in 
the  same  way  we  have  the  earth-life  of  the  individual 
and  the  soul-state  alternating,  till  his  worldly  work 
is  done  and  he  is  fitted  for  a  more  spiritual  plane. 
Without  all  this  how  did  Palladius  and  his  friends 
explain  existence  ? 

Palladius  proceeds  to  explain,  and  is  questioned 
from  all  sides,  as  nobody  understands  the  explana- 
tion. He  insists  that  the  individual  comes  but  once 
to  earth,  and  after  death  goes  to  Heaven  or  Hell,  to 
remain  in  the  same  state  for  ever.  This,  a  chief 
interjects,  would  be  as  extraordinary  as  "  hfe  "  con- 
sisting of  only  one  day  and  one  night.  The  chiefs 
generally  now  aver  that  the  teaching  of  Palladius 
does  not  harmonise  with  the  old  wisdom,  and  does  not 
even  agree  with  the  teaching  of  Old  Patrick  himself 
— he  is  at  one  with  the  druids  in  many  things,  though 
he  is  not  so  learned  or  so  philosophical.     One  thing. 


DRUIDS   INTERVENE  247 

however,  Old  Patrick  has  made  clearer  to  them  :  the 
law  of  love  and  charity. 

At  this  Palladius  grows  angry,  and  asserts  that 
the  druids  are  on  the  side  of  the  Devil,  who  was  the 
prompter  of  the  philosophers  of  old.  It  goes  hard 
with  the  king  to  control  the  assembly.  Many  declare 
against  permitting  Palladius  to  go  at  will  through  the 
country  henceforward.  It  is  plain  that  he  is  an 
enemy  of  the  Gaelic  order,  and  would  do  untold 
damage,  and  set  folk  astray  altogether.  They  lament 
the  fact  that  he  is  not  so  simple-hearted  as  Old 
Patrick,  now  at  work  in  the  North.  Palladius  grows 
still  more  angry,  declaring  that  Old  Patrick  is  neither 
learned  nor  loyal  to  the  Church,  but  the  assembly 
refuses  to  listen  to  him.  He  leaves  the  gathering 
precipitately.  Laoghaire  sends  a  messenger  to  him, 
but  he  refuses  to  return.  He  goes  from  Tara  that 
evening,  and  soon  afterwards  leaves  the  country. 

In  the  opinion  of  certain  chiefs  and  druids  the  neo- 
clerics  as  a  whole  ought  to  be  banished,  but  the  king 
is  opposed  strongly  to  such  drastic  action.  He  thinks 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  send  Old  Patrick  on  a  mission 
amongst  them,  to  impress  on  them  the  fact  that  they 
must  be  prudent,  helpful,  and  loyal  like  himself. 

The  king  does  not  understand  the  neo-clerics,  nor 
does  he  reahse  the  nature  of  the  new  Christian  power 
that  is  arising  throughout  the  Roman  Empire.  Old 
Patrick  himself  understands  the  position  just  as  Uttle. 
Neachtan  and  others  are  more  shrewd,  but  to  no 
avail. 

Neachtan  meets  Ciaran  on  the  last  day  of  the  Feis, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  talk  tells  how  uneasy  in  spirit 
he  is  even  though  Palladius  disturbs  the  land  no 


248     THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

more.  Palladius  is  gone,  but  the  neo-clerics  and  their 
schools  remain,  and  soon  or  late  if  they  can  they 
will  sap  and  destroy  the  old  order.  And  if  they  and 
theirs  succeed  and  get  the  upper  hand  in  Eire,  crude 
and  paltry  will  be  the  story  they  will  leave  for  after 
ages  concerning  the  lore  of  the  druids  and  the  ways 
of  the  chiefs  and  workers  before  them.  The  further 
points  of  the  chat  do  not  concern  us  here. 

All  this,  I  need  hardly  say,  is  opposed  root  and 
branch  to  the  general  clerical  theory  of  what  obtained 
and  happened  when  the  new  theological  order  met 
the  old  in  Ireland.  Whether  all  the  underlying  ideas 
are  justifiable  or  not  is  not  now  the  question.  The 
point  is  that  they  are  held  by  an  increasing  propor- 
tion of  the  new  generation,  though  of  course  some 
who  are  called  Gaels  would  not  avowedly  go  so  far ; 
still  they  follow  the  conclusions  with  interest.  And 
the  conclusions  challenge  study  and  thought.  If  the 
great  majority  of  our  Catholic  clerics — there  are 
always  exceptions — show  a  monstrous  and  impossible 
pre-Patrician  Ireland,  they  have  to  reckon  with  those 
in  their  own  fold  and  without  who  show  a  pictur- 
esque and  a  possible  pre-Patrician  Ireland. 

In  this  connection  a  pertinent  question  has  often 
been  asked  of  late  years.  If  things  obtained  and 
happened  as  the  majority  of  the  priests  proclaim — 
if  druidism  had  no  philosophy  or  vision,  and  if  the 
new  teaching,  so  far  as  it  was  new,  prevailed  and 
permeated  the  country  in  the  fifth  and  succeeding 
centuries,  how  are  we  to  explain  the  neo-Platonism 
of  Johannes  Scotus  Erigena  in  the  ninth  century  ? 
The  weight  of  authority  goes  to  show  that  he  obtained 


DRUIDS    INTERVENE  249 

his  early  training  in  Irish  schools.  He  certainly  does 
not  seem  to  fit  in  with  the  usual  clerical  theory.  In 
Dublin  during  the  past  few  years  a  good  deal  of 
attention  has  been  devoted  to  Erigena,  some  study- 
ing the  manuscripts  in  the  National  Library,  some 
finding  sufficient  for  their  needs  in  works  like  the 
attractive  Studies  in  John  the  Scot,  by  Miss  Alice 
Gardner.  Curiously  enough,  John  Eglinton  apart, 
the  deepest  first-hand  student  of  Erigena  that  I  have 
met  was  a  young  Irish  priest.  Erigena  is  "  my 
favourite  philosopher, ""  said  this  sagart,  writing  in 
the  Peasant  in  April  1907,  and  he  proceeded  to  argue, 
in  reply  to  a  lay  contributor,  that  although  ''  like  all 
philosophers  and  most  theologians, he  made  mistakes," 
Erigena  was  always  a  true  Catholic — a  pointed  ex- 
ample of  the  liberality  and  courage  of  some  of  the 
younger  Irish  priests. 


CHAPTER   XX 

LITTERATEURS   AND   THE   LAND 

"  I  MOVED  among  men  and  places,  and  in  living  I 
learned  the  truth  at  last.  I  know  I  am  a  spirit,  and 
that  I  went  forth  in  old  time  from  the  Self -ancestral 
to  labours  yet  unaccomplished ;  but  filled  ever  and 
again  with  home-sickness  I  made  these  songs  by  the 
way." 

"  In  day  from  some  titanic  past  it  seems 
As  if  a  thread  divine  of  memory  runs ; 
Born  ere  the  Mighty  One  began  his  dreams, 
Or  yet  were  stars  and  suns. 

But  here  an  iron  will  has  fixed  the  bars ; 
Forgetfulness  falls  on  earth's  myriad  races  ; 
No  image  of  the  proud  and  morning  stars 
Looks  at  us  from  their  faces. 

Yet  yearning  still  to  reach  to  those  dim  heights, 
Each  dream  remembered  is  a  burning-glass, 
Where  through  to  darkness  from  the  Light  of  Lights 
Its  rays  in  splendour  pass." 

"  If  nationality  is  to  justify  itself  ...  it  must  be 
because  the  country  which  preserves  its  individuality 
does  so  with  the  profound  conviction  that  its  peculiar 
ideal  is  nobler  than  that  which  the  cosmopohtan 
spirit  suggests — that  this  ideal  is  so  precious  to  it 
that  its  loss  would  be  as  the  loss  of  the  soul.  .  .  . 
Nationality  was  never  so  strong  in  Ireland  as  at  the 
present  time.     It  is  beginning  to  be  felt  less  as  a 

250 


LITTERATEURS  AND  THE  LAND     251 

political  movement  than  as  a  spiritual  force.  It 
seems  to  be  gathering  itself  together,  joining  men 
who  were  hostile  before  in  a  new  intellectual  fellow- 
ship :  and  if  all  these  could  unite  on  fundamentals, 
it  would  be  possible  in  a  generation  to  create  a  national 
ideal  in  Ireland,  or  rather  to  let  that  spirit  incarnate 
fully  which  began  among  the  ancient  peoples,  which, 
has  haunted  the  hearts  and  whispered  a  dim  revela- 
tion of  itself  through  the  lips  of  the  bards  and  peasant 
story-tellers.  .  .  .  We  can  see,  as  the  ideal  of  Ireland 
grows  from  mind  to  mind,  it  tends  to  assume  the 
character  of  a  sacred  land.  .  .  .  The  last  Celtic  poet 
who  has  appeared  shows  the  spiritual  quahties  of  the 
first,  when  he  writes  of  the  grey  rivers  in  their  '  en- 
raptured '  wanderings,  and  when  he  sees  in  the 
jewelled  bow  which  arches  the  heavens 

"  '■  The  Lord's  seven  spirits  that  shine  through  the  rain.' 

"  This  mystical  view  of  nature,  peculiar  to  but  one 
English  poet,  Wordsworth,  is  a  national  character- 
istic ;  and  much  in  the  Creation  of  the  Ireland  in  the 
mind  is  already  done,  and  only  needs  retelling  by 
the  new  writers." 

"  If  we  had  not  put  our  brains  to  sleep — the  sleep 
of  the  well-fatted  and  comfortable  hog — for  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century,  the  Danes  and  others  would 
never  have  had  the  courage  to  attack  the  Irish  bacon- 
curing  industry  in  the  way  they  have  done." 

These  four  quotations  are  from  the  writings  of  one 
man,  whom  we  have  met  at  earlier  stages  :  Mr. 
George  Russell  (''A.  E.").     The  first  is  the  preface 


252     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

to  his  Homeward :  Songs  by  the  Way,  the  second  is  a 
poem  from  that  volume,  the  third  is  from  Some  Irish 
Essays,  the  fourth  is  a  note  taken  ahnost  at  random 
from  the  Irish  Homestead,  the  organ  of  the  agricul- 
tural co-operative  movement,  which  Mr.  Russell  edits 
with  unfaiUng  zest  and  raciness — he  maintains  that 
it  is  the  most  cheerful  paper  in  Ireland,  possibly  even 
in  the  world.  Some  readers,  impressed  by  the  spirit 
and  beauty  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  quotations, 
may  experience  a  little  shock  at  the  fourth,  but  it  is 
not  really  out  of  harmony  with  the  others,  and  any- 
how it  is  very  like  Mr.  Russell.  He  has  a  broad  and 
bracing  ideal  of  the  Hero  in  Man,  including  Irish 
farming  man,  and  he  knows  that  no  one  can  be  much 
of  a  hero  if  he  puts  his  brains  to  sleep.  At  the  appro- 
priate time  he  will  discourse  with  enlightening  felicity 
on  the  Four  Noble  Truths  and  the  Eight-fold  Path 
of  the  Buddhists ;  but  in  the  editorial  chair  of  the 
Homestead  he  gives  his  mind,  with  a  concentration 
which  he  finds  stimulating  and  entertaining,  to  the 
plainer  truths  and  the  limited  yet  potentially  delect- 
able path  pertaining  to  the  co-operative  farmers.  In 
other  spells  he  is  an  artist,  appealing  in  divers  ways 
to  the  wonder-sense  and  the  sense  of  beauty.  Even 
when  he  takes  a  wheel-barrow  for  his  theme  he  is 
able  to  give  it  something  of  the  mysterious  setting 
and  suggestion  of  his  elf-mounds.  He  makes  an  old 
farmer  in  the  country,  with  his  mountain  background, 
elemental  and  heroic.  In  his  twilight  and  evening 
pictures  he  is  a  poet  using  colour  as  his  medium.  His 
seascapes  are  often  alluring  and  lovely  ;  his  bathers 
are  romantic  and  his  hills  are  mystery.  He  looks, 
not  the  poet,  seer,  and  artist  he  is,  but  a  genial 


LITTERATEURS  AND  THE  LAND     253 

viking.  To  live  in  Dublin  and  be  a  friend  of  "  A.  E/* 
is  to  be  in  the  way  of  finding  Dublin  and  life  and — 
unless  one  is  a  hopeless  case — even  one's  self  inex- 
haustibly interesting.  Some  time  ago  he  and  Mr. 
George  Bernard  Shaw  met  casually,  neither  knowing 
the  other,  before  a  picture  in  a  Dublin  art  gallery 
and  dropped  into  conversation  about  the  picture, 
then  about  art,  and  eventually  about  life.  Each  was 
astonished  and  bewildered  at  the  cleverness,  origina- 
lity, and  humour  of  the  other.  When  they  parted 
the  first  desire  of  each  was  to  be  enlightened  as  to 
the  identity  of  the  "  extraordinary  man  "  with  whom 
he  had  been  talking.  The  story  of  the  meeting  and 
the  quest  created  lively  amusement  amongst  the 
friends  of  both. 

At  present  we  are  concerned  with  "  A.  E."  in  one 
special  capacity.  He  is  the  philosopher,  the  cheerful 
philosopher,  of  the  Plunkett  movement.  He  looks 
to  the  land  and  those  who  live  on  the  land  with 
enthusiasm  and  affection.  Earth  in  his  poetic  vision 
is  a  goddess,  a  dark  divinity  ;  he  upbraids  those  who 
have  made  the  irreverent  mistake  of  "  calling  its  holy 
substance  common  clay ;  "  when  he  thinks  of  its  mystic 
significance,  he  tells  us  in  one  of  his  poems,  "  I  look 
with  sudden  awe  beneath  my  feet."  He  does  not  of 
course  address  farmers  in  that  style,  or  anything 
nearly  like  it,  but  in  a  graphic  and  lively  way  he 
leads  the  man  on  the  land  to  the  knowledge  of  earth- 
powers  and  earth-goddesses  he  can  appreciate.  Some- 
times in  his  Homestead  visions  he  seems  to  set  farmers 
engaged  in  the  planting  of  potatoes  on  as  high  a  plane 
as  the  creative  spirits  of  mystic  hterature  beginning 
the  fashioning  of  a  cosmos  after  a  Night  of  Brahma, 


254     THE    POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

only  the  expression  of  the  vision  and  appreciation  is 
racy  of  the  soil  and  homely.  Indeed  with  his  imagi- 
nation, hmnour,  and  fine  practical  sense  he  makes 
the  Homestead  refreshing  reading,  and  from  year's  end 
to  year's  end  he  keeps  in  divers  ways  the  gospel  of 
the  vast  potentialities  of  the  soil  and  of  natural  life 
on  the  land  before  the  people. 

The  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society,  the 
I.A.O.S.,  as  it  is  familiarly  called,  now  represents  over 
a  hundred  thousand  farmers,  and  is  consequently  one 
of  the  most  important  forces  in  the  country.  Built 
up  steadily  in  the  face  of  considerable  opposition, 
most  of  it  unreasoning,  and  with  suspicions,  inertia, 
antiquated  notions,  and  other  ills  to  live  down,  it  is 
one  of  the  great  constructive  developments  of  modern 
Ireland.  Its  success  has  not  been  uniform  and  un- 
varying, but  in  many  places,  from  midland  regions 
to  the  wild  north-western  coast  of  Donegal,  it  has 
developed  great  energy  of  character  and  business 
qualities.  Numerous  co-operators  are  fine  indivi- 
dualities. Indirect  results,  like  the  effect  of  the 
association  of  farmers  of  different  creeds  in  the 
societies  and  their  work,  and  the  opportunity  often 
availed  of  by  the  clergy  of  acting  and  thinking  with 
the  people,  are  decidedly  to  the  good.  The  purely 
agricultural  co-operative  societies  have  not  yet  made 
all  the  headway  that  might  be  expected  ;  the  system 
of  working  in  the  co-operative  creameries  is  far 
superior  to  what  it  was  in  the  later  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  though  even  here  the  Irish  co- 
operator  is  still  behind  the  Danish  and  others.  How- 
ever, the  important  point  is  that  he  is  going  ahead. 

Mr.  Russell  maintains  that  the  new  movement  for 


LITTERATEURS   AND  THE  LAND     255 

the  organisation  of  agriculture  opens  up  "  infinitely 
more  interesting  and  complex  vistas  ''  than  have  been 
generally  sighted  yet.  The  ideal  and  programme  he 
keeps  before  the  farmers  are  decidedly  bold,  but  they 
can  be  briefly  expressed.  If  the  farmers  are  ever  to 
see  in  rural  districts  any  of  the  comforts  and  luxuries 
of  the  city — and  so  counteract  the  influences  of  the 
city — they  must  make  it  their  fundamental  and  per- 
sistent policy  to  work  towards  complete  control  over 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  all  the  produce  of  the 
countryside,  its  live  stock,  its  crops,  its  bye-products, 
and  the  manufacturing  businesses  connected  with 
these.  The  practical  working  out  of  this  policy 
would  turn  the  co-operative  societies,  which  are  as 
a  rule  speciahsed  for  one  purpose,  into  general  pur- 
poses societies.  Thus  the  dairy  society  would  be- 
come an  agricultural  society,  having  its  agricultural 
store,  its  credit  or  banking  department,  its  poultry 
department,  and  other  branches  specialised  for  the 
sale  of  whatever  other  produce  the  district  might 
cultivate.  There  would  finally  be  one  large  and  well- 
equipped  business  firm  doing  the  business  hitherto 
done  by  a  dozen  or  two  dozen  small  and  inadequate 
concerns.  It  would  make  large  profits  for  its  members. 
It  could  promote  village  and  home  industries  for  the 
women,  have  its  own  carpenters  and  shoemakers, 
make  its  own  harness  and  saddlery,  and  employ  local 
labour  permanently — in  the  summer  in  the  fields,  in 
the  winter  at  other  work.  Out  of  the  profits  of  such 
great  rural  co-operative  societies  many  things  could 
be  done  for  the  people  without  the  members  feeling 
the  cost.  Village  halls  and  recreation  rooms  could 
be  builtj  rural  libraries  started,  and  as  the  process 


256     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

went  on,  with  something  attempted  and  done  year 
by  year,  our  village  and  rural  life  would  grow  beauti- 
ful. The  alliance  of  the  local  societies  with  large 
federations  would  make  the  farmer's  position  strong 
in  the  economic  and  political  worlds,  but  not  so 
strong  as  Mr.  Russell  is  in  the  habit  of  assuming — 
labour,  manufacturing,  and  other  local  and  national 
claims  will  have  to  be  reckoned  with.  If  we  get  the 
farmers  and  the  labourers  in  country  districts  into 
the  same  associations,  and  the  associations  into  union 
with  national  federations,  we  have,  says  Mr.  Russell, 
a  united  working  Ireland.  Eventually,  to  put  the 
idea  in  another  way,  we  would  have  a  series  of  local 
industrial  "  states,"  an  aggregation  of  co-operative 
commonwealths.  Naturally,  if  such  associations  or 
states  are  to  grow  and  thrive  to  the  utmost  the 
labourers  and  the  artisans  must  be  genuinely  co-opera- 
tive units,  or  at  any  rate  in  a  far  higher  position  than 
they  are  at  present.  On  this  point  Mr.  Russell  has 
not  yet  spoken  clearly ;  neither  have  the  farmers. 
On  the  status,  dignity,  education,  and  destiny  of 
labour,  the  farming,  manufacturing,  ecclesiastical, 
and  other  Irish  worlds  require  a  liberal  education 
yet.  Mr.  Russell  himself  looks  to  the  social  and 
human  results  of  this  possible  complete  organisation 
of  rural  life  and  industry  as  the  greatest  outcome. 
He  says  finely  and  truly  that  we  should  aim  at 
creating  a  social  order  in  which  the  struggle  for 
existence  will  give  way  to  a  brotherhood  of  workers, 
where  men,  dependent  on  the  success  of  their  united 
endeavours  for  their  own  prosperity,  will  instinc- 
tively think  first  of  the  community  and  secondly  of 
themselves. 


LITTERATEURS  AND  THE   LAND     257 

It  is  good  at  any  rate  that  the  progressive  farmers 
have  been  given  so  large  an  idea,  and  that  they  have 
received  it  with  interest  and  sympathy.  We  build 
up  from  the  ideal,  the  mental  model.  Even  the 
partial  realisation  of  this  ideal  would  go  far,  but  by 
no  means  the  whole  way,  to  remove  blots  and  blight 
in  Irish  village  and  rural  life  that  trouble  all  thinking 
observers.  Brotherhoods  of  workers  with  ideas  are 
just  what  rural  and  urban  Ireland  needs. 

Many  have  commented  on  what  they  deemed  the 
incongruity  of  a  man  of  "  A.  E.'s  ''  poetic  vision  and 
artistic  capacity  devoting  several  hours  of  his  day  to 
issues  bearing  on  bacon-curing,  vegetables,  grain- 
crops,  poultry,  and  other  things  affecting  farmers 
and  housewives.  It  is  a  loss  undoubtedly  to  art  and 
poetry,  but  it  is  a  good  and  bracing  thing  for  the 
weekly  farmer-audience,  and  "  A.  E."  himself  appa- 
rently enjoys  the  intellectual  association  with  this 
natural  and  striving  world.  And  after  all,  to  be  a 
guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  to  the  potential  hero 
and  discoverer  on  the  land  is  a  noble  role.  Here,  too, 
as  in  his  poetic  prose  and  poetry,  though  in  a  different 
way,  he  is  helping  to  make  Ireland  interesting  and 
heroic  again. 

Similarly,  in  latter  years,  another  distinctive  Irish- 
man who  had  brooded  much  on  Celtic  dream  and 
deed,  and  given  memorable  literary  re-creation  to  old 
heroic  life  in  his  own  way,  turned  his  soul  and  his 
steps  after  many  days  to  squalid  or  forlorn  sides  of 
our  modern  town-life  and  the  problem  of  getting 
wasted  clerks  and  other  denizens  back  to  humanising 
existence  on  the  land.  This  was  Mr.  Standish 
O'Grady ;    and  one  of  my  happiest  experiences  in 


258     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

Dublin  was  to  be  able  to  give  him  the  social  press- 
pulpit  he  needed,  and  that  Ireland  needed,  too.  Al- 
most from  boyhood  he  had  been  heroic  in  my  imagi- 
nation. "  Years  ago  in  the  adventurous  youth  of  his 
mind,''  as  "  A.  E."  once  said,  "  Mr.  O'Grady  found 
the  Gaelic  tradition  like  a  neglected  diln  with  the 
doors  barred,  and  there  was  little  or  no  egress. 
Listening,  he  heard  from  within  the  hum  of  an 
immense  chivalry,  and  he  opened  the  doors,  and  the 
wild  riders  went  forth  to  work  their  will."  This  was 
in  reference  to  Mr.  0 'Grady's  fascinating  History  of 
Ireland  :  The  Heroic  Period.  History  in  the  ordinary 
sense  it  is  not ;  it  is  romance,  vision,  imaginative 
truth,  rapture,  prose  poetry,  a  vivid  re-kindhng  and 
re-telHng  of  the  old  spirit  and  the  old  sagas.  It  was 
a  wonderful  book  for  its  period  of  publication  :  it 
appeared  in  the  desolate  eighties,  when  only  the  few 
gave  a  thought  to  the  bygone  deeds  and  the  bygone 
magic  of  Gaeldom.  But  Mr.  0 'Grady,  on  fire  with 
his  epic  and  romantic  theme,  wrote  as  if  the  souls 
of  all  men  were  kindled  by  the  old  names  and  attuned 
to  the  old  music.  At  the  time  hardly  anybody 
secured  or  knew  of  the  book.  Mr.  O'Grady,  glowing 
with  the  tale  of  Cuchulainn  and  his  kindred,  was  as 
strange  and  sohtary  as  a  rhapsodist  or  prophet  in  a 
desert.  But  he  was  in  the  happy  position  of  the 
man  of  vision  and  feeling  writing  for  himself.  He 
went  on  writing  for  himself,  choosing  highways  or 
byways  of  Irish  romance  and  history.  He  was  duly 
discovered,  and  by  the  mid-nineties  his  presentation 
of  heroic  times  and  moods  spelt  riches  for  us  all. 
Meanwhile  Mr.  W.  B.  Yeats  had  arisen,  "  A.  E."  had 
haunted  and  charmed  a  discerning  circle — Katharine 


LITTERATEURS   AND  THE  LAND     259 

Tynan,  Dora  Sigerson,  and  others,  had  shown  still 
earlier  that  Ireland  was  yet  songful — while  on  the 
Gaelic  side  Dr.  Hyde  and  his  new  heroic  company 
had  forgathered,  but  had  little  hope  or  thought  as 
yet  of  the  adventures  and  the  joyance  to  be.  Of  all 
who  wrote  in  those  years  in  English,  O'Grady  to  the 
popular  and  general  view  seemed  the  greatest  link 
with  the  older  Gael,  or  at  any  rate  with  his  civiHsa- 
tion.  His  prose  suggested  the  colour,  music,  move- 
ment, many-sided  character  of  a  great  Feis  in  the 
fulness  of  day.  "  A.  E.'s  "  prose,  at  certain  stages, 
though  it  did  not  reach  the  many,  had  great  flashes 
of  what  could  be  deemed  the  reflective  ancient  Gael's 
inner  mind  ;  his  poetry  in  its  subtle  and  cosmic  intui- 
tions made  more  difficult  demands  on  his  audience. 
Yeats  was  a  more  mysterious  and  preoccupied  singer — 
except  in  certain  simple  utterances — who  might  have 
seemed  isolated  and  individual  not  simply  to  Gaels 
old  or  new  but  to  fairies  or  devas  themselves.  In  the 
succeeding  ten  or  twelve  years,  while  all  these  writers 
found  further  and  wider  appreciation,  a  world  of  new 
interests  had  arisen  ;  a  different  Ireland,  or  Irelands, 
came  into  manifestation.  We  often  had  a  curious 
feeling  that  somehow  Ireland  had  been  suddenly 
re-peopled. 

But  there  was  always  a  dark  side  to  the  picture. 
When  Mr.  O'Grady  came  to  see  me  in  Dublin  in  1908 
we  had  already  printed  pages  on  pages  of  social  pic- 
tures and  criticism.  We  had  tried  to  see  Ireland 
steadily  and  see  it  whole,  and  while  the  new  intel- 
lectual, artistic,  and  industrial  developments  were 
full  of  hope,  and  not  seldom  remarkable,  it  was  im- 
possible, and  it  would  have  been  foolish  and  inhuman, 


260     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

to  overlook  the  wide  social  stagnation,  inertia,  squalid 
poverty,  pessimism,  and  decay.  Through  all  the  five 
years  these  things  were  as  much  in  our  minds  as  the 
brightening  features.  Slum  horrors,  country  "  hous- 
ing ''  evils,  the  often  despised  and  degraded  condition 
of  labour  north  and  south,  the  social  and  moral  blight 
in  towns,  poor  law  anomalies,  problems  of  western 
fishers,  weavers,  and  kelp-burners,  and  a  score  of  other 
things,  were  tackled  week  in  week  out.  Several  of  the 
pictures  were  grimly  realistic,  notably  some  in  a  series 
on  Dublin  slums  by  Seumas  Ua  Pice,  and  kindred 
ones  in  the  same  sphere  which  a  poor  law  official  was 
enabled  to  draw  from  his  daily  experiences.  When 
we  turned  to  alert,  modern  Belfast,  or  to  remote, 
lowly  Connacht  there  were  still  startling  features. 
In  one  week  in  December  1910  we  had  Belfast  and 
Connemara  in  grim  conjunction.  Miss  Alice  MilHgan, 
a  Protestant  contributor,  drew  a  realistic  picture  of 
doomed  consumptive  workers  in  the  northern  capital 
— she  had  known  some  to  stay  at  work  tiU  within 
forty-eight  hours  of  the  end.  A  description  of  experi- 
ences which  the  new  Catholic  Bishop  of  Galway,  Dr. 
O'Dea,  and  others,  had  just  given  a  Congested  Dis- 
tricts Board  Committee  at  Recess  showed  the  western 
way : — 

"  Dr.  O'Dea  said  on  a  recent  visit  of  his  to  several 
parishes  in  Connemara,  in  Rossa villa  he  asked  to  be 
taken  by  the  parish  priest  into  what  he  considered 
was  a  typical  house.  It  was  the  house  of  a  widow 
w^ho  had  recently  been  ill,  and  contained  six  or  seven 
children  crouched  around  what  was  called  a  fire.  As 
he  spoke  he  heard  the  lowing  of  a  beast,  quite  near, 
and  turning  round  observed  that  it  came  from  a  Httle 


LITTERATEURS  AND  THE   LAND     261 

room  ofi  the  kitchen.  He  saw  people  lying  opposite 
the  fire  in  the  kitchen.  He  was  informed  that  the 
house  was  better  than  many  another  in  Connemara. 
His  lordship  mentioned  a  previous  experience  in 
another  part  of  Connemara.  When  walking  with  a 
parish  priest  he  asked  to  be  taken  into  a  house  which 
the  priest  regarded  as  more  miserable  than  the  rest 
of  the  houses  in  the  district.  He  ascertained  that  it 
contained  only  one  room,  and  in  that  room  were 
housed  during  the  winter  the  father,  the  mother,  and 
the  children,  with  whatever  cattle  they  had,  the  pigs, 
the  poultry,  and  the  rest.  Those  were  the  conditions. 
These  instances  were  representative  of  the  conditions 
that  prevailed  in  Connemara.  '  I  confess  I  was 
shocked  beyond  measure,'  continued  his  lordship. 
*  I  had  no  idea  that  the  people  were  so  wretched, 
and  I  asked  myself  what  the  Congested  Districts 
Board  had  been  doing  for  that  district.'  Another 
point  on  which  he  might  lay  stress  was  the  recent 
epidemic  of  fever  in  one  of  the  islands  off  the  coast. 
What  was  the  cause  of  that  fever  except  that  the 
people  had  been  left  to  live  under  conditions  not  fit 
for  human  beings  ? 

"  Monsignor  Mac  Alpine  said  that  in  Clifden  Union 
alone  there  were  over  3000  tenancies  under  £4  valua- 
tion, while  at  the  same  time  within  the  confines  of 
the  Union  grazing  and  mountain  farms  68,000  acres 
in  extent  were  in  possession  of  184  non-residents.  . 

"  Mr.  P.  J.  O'Malley,  chairman  Oughterard  Rural 
District  Council,  said  the  statements  applied  with 
equal  relevance  to  the  Union  of  Oughterard.  There 
were  3800  holdings,  and  3200  under  £5  valuation. 
The  holdings  only  barely  merited  to  be  called  land. 


262     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

In  Koss  one-third  of  the  parish  was  in  the  hands  of 
one  man — Lord  Ardilaun — and  outside  his  demesne 
nearly  one-third  of  the  parish  was  either  grazed  for 
himself  or  on  the  eleven  months'  system.  There 
were  hundreds  of  people  in  Lettermore  who  had  not 
an  animal  in  the  world.  There  were  hmidreds  of 
families  who  never  knew  the  taste  of  milk  since  they 
left  their  mothers'  breasts." 

To  dwell  at  length  on  these  sides  and  aspects  of 
Ireland  would  be  simply  to  pile  up  ills  and  horrors. 
But  it  is  essential  that  they  and  the  complicated 
problems  they  raise  should  be  remembered,  if  our 
picture  is  to  preserve  any  sense  of  proportion. 

Mr.  Standish  O'G-rady  had  been  studying  them  and 
brooding  deeply  upon  them,  and  to  my  great  grati- 
fication he  desired  to  deal  with  them  as  well  as  the 
rest  of  us.  For  two  years,  or  more,  in  the  Peasant, 
and  then  the  Irish  Nation,  he  grappled  with  the 
realities  and  problems  in  one  way  or  another.  He 
brought  to  them  the  energy  and  intensity  he  had 
given  to  the  old  heroic  chivalry  twenty  years  before, 
but  this  time  an  impassioned  humanity,  relieved  by 
poetry,  irony,  and  humour,  moved  his  pen.  He  did 
not  spare  Mr.  RusseU's  idols — the  farmers,  long  petted 
and  coddled,  he  said,  by  politicians  and  parliaments, 
and  still  letting  the  richest  reaches  of  Ireland  go  to 
grass  and  waste ;  he  did  not  spare  the  clergy,  afraid 
or  unwilling  to  apply  their  own  gospel  to  life.  He 
brought  a  gallant  note  into  the  discussion  of  outwardly 
miserable  matters,  and  several  series  of  his  articles, 
hke  "  About  Paradises,"  "  Life  and  Liberty  :  Letters 
to  a  Dublin  Clerk,"  were  often  fascinating  reading. 
They  heartened  and  helped  those  who  were  working 


LITTERATEURS  AND  THE  LAND     263 

at  the  problems,  or  trying  to  grapple  with  them,  in 
divers  ways.  He  preached  a  new  communism,  and 
at  one  stage  sketched  in  arresting  detail  a  possible, 
and,  he  maintained,  a  practicable  commune,  or  series 
of  communes,  for  weary  clerks  and  others  who  would 
go  back  to  the  land.  He  himself  had  taken  a  farm 
of  some  twenty  acres  in  Wicklow,  and  he  furnished 
engaging  accounts  of  his  labours  and  experiences  in 
its  working.  Week  by  week  he  gave  his  "  clerks  '' 
incidental  little  lectures  of  a  kind  they  had  never 
heard  before  from  pulpit  or  press  or  platform.  Here 
is  one  out  of  scores  : — 

"  And,  another  thing.  Don't  argue  ;  at  least,  don't 
get  into  loggerheads  with  worldly-wise  people.  Think 
things  out  for  yourselves.  You  have  understanding  ; 
your  own  interests  are  of  infinite  concern  to  you,  and 
I  am  addressing  myself  to  your  interests  and  under- 
standing, and  not  much  to  your  imagination,  hardly 
touching  at  all  upon  the  great  things  which  he  ahead. 

"  You  will  only  fret  and  vex  yourselves  by  arguing 
with  conceited  men  and  women  of  the  world,  who  talk 
revilingly  about  human  nature,  as  if,  with  their  miser- 
able little  bit  of  experience,  they  understood  it  through 
and  through.  Of  this  unfathomable  mystery  they 
really  know  nothing  at  all. 

"  The  man  of  the  world  knows  as  little  about  human 
nature  as  the  lobster  does  of  the  sea.  Like  the  lobster 
he  knows  just  as  much  as  his  pair  of  horny  eyes  permit 
him  to  know — no  more.  Human  nature  includes 
Sparta  as  well  as  Liverpool,  and  the  Fianna  Eireann 
as  well  as  the  Dublin  Stock  Exchange,  and  is  by  no 
means  easy  to  understand.  Indeed,  those  know  it 
least  who  think  they  know  it  most. 


264     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

"  You  will  observe  that  I  use  the  word  Nature 
where  more  than  Nature  seems  to  be  meant.  I  do 
so,  partly  because  I  don't  wish  unnecessarily  to 
introduce  the  most  sacred  word  in  the  language  ; 
partly  because  so  much  cant  and  insincerity,  or  worse, 
surroimds  that  word  ;  and  partly  because,  since  books 
like  HaeckeFs  Riddle  of  the  Universe,  and  other  materi- 
alistic literature  have  come  into  Ireland — mostly  out 
of  England — serious-minded  yomig  Irish  people  are 
growing  dubious  concerning  the  simple  faith  of  the 
many.  Then  I  would  make  this  appeal  to  all,  and 
would  found  it  upon  something  which  you  can  no 
more  doubt  than  you  do  your  own  existence.  For 
you  are  assured  of  the  world  of  things  that  surrounds 
you,  the  objective  and  external  world,  as  you  are  of 
yourself,  of  the  solitary  unitary  I  or  me,  which  is  in 
the  midst  of  you.  Now,  all  this  world,  which  is  not 
You  and  which  keeps  instantaneously  unfolding  and 
unrolling  itself  around  you,  and  even  every  moment 
pulsing  and  surging  through  you,  is  what  I  call  Nature. 

"  Nature  is  a  Latin  word  used  first  by  some  pre- 
historic Italian  man,  and  has  a  very  delicate  and 
beautiful  signification.  The  full  form  would  be  Ees 
Natura.  It  means  the  Being  which  is  always  being 
born  and  about  to  be  born,  Natura  being  the  future 
participle  of  its  verb.  For  the  Ancients  Nature  had 
a  very  large  and  sacred  significance.  It  was  thought 
of  at  the  same  time  as  the  Mother  of  gods  and  men, 
and  also  as  a  Virgin.  Nature  was  the  Virgin-Mother 
of  all  those  Mediterranean  classic  and  prehistoric 
nations.  As  representing  the  fecundity  of  the  earth, 
she  was  Ops  ;  and,  as  Queen  of  Heaven,  Astrsea. 
Curiously,  our  word  co-operation,  which  is  so  im- 


LITTERATEURS  AND  THE  LAND     265 

portant  in  this  connection,  is  derived  from  Ops.  Ops 
is  a  form  of  o'pus,  operis,  work  ;  the  most  primitive 
and  most  fundamental  kind  of  work  being  that  of 
tilling  the  earth  (Ops)  ;  our  Gaelic  word  obair  is,  of 
course,  from  the  same  root.  The  ancient  name  of 
the  Virgin-Mother  of  all  things  is  in  this  word  which 
we  so  lightly  use  to-day. 

"  In  our  time  Nature  is  reassuming  that  large 
significance  which  she  possessed  for  the  Ancients. 
All  the  great  modern  poets  have  been  impassioned 
Nature-lovers — Byron,  Shelley,  Wordsworth,  Walt 
Whitman.  Consider  the  significance  of  this ;  no 
great  literature  in  our  age  save  that  which  expresses 
the  love  of  Nature.  For  other  great  Nature-poetry 
we  have  to  go  back  to  the  Psalms.  Again,  modern 
science  has  been  extending  and  deepening  this  general 
feeling  towards  Nature  by  its  revelation  of  the  marvel 
and  mystery  of  her  processes,  and  the  rediscovery  not 
only  of  life  but  of  something  which  we  only  faintly 
and  feebly  indicate  by  the  words  mind  and  wisdom. 
I  say  '  rediscovery,'  for,  when  society  was  simpler 
and  men  less  sophisticated,  and  more  in  touch  with 
realities,  there  was  an  intuitive  perception  of  an 
intelligence  or  intelligences  pervading  all  Nature,  and 
present  in  the  very  least  of  natural  processes. 

"  Recall  our  own  Saint  Columba's  words  : — 

"  '  Crowded  thick  with  Heaven's  angels 
Is  every  leaf  of  the  oaks  of  Derry.' 

Angelic  intelligences  at  work  everywhere. 

"  If  you  read  St.  Adamnan's  Life  of  St.  Columba 
you  will  find  that  the  latter  possessed  in  a  singular 
degree  the  faculty  of  second  sight. 


266     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

"  Modern  science,  delving  and  probing  into  Nature's 
mysteries  with  a  curiosity  of  which  I  don't  quite  ap- 
prove, has  discovered  the  Atom  of  which  all  things 
material  are  composed,  and  has  found  it  to  be  as 
marvellous  and  mysterious  as  the  Universe  itself,  and 
a  reservoir  of  the  most  tremendous  potencies.  Le 
Bon  tells  us  that  the  mere  mechanical  power  stored 
in  the  atoms  of  a  teaspoonful  of  water  is  more  than 
the  equivalent  of  all  the  existing  steam-power  of  all 
France.  Proud  science  has  at  last  found  her  Atom, 
and  stands  aghast  before  it ! 

"  Now,  while  you  have  each  a  different  religion  or 
philosophy,  you  all  believe  in  Nature.  Res  Natura 
does  not  permit  you  to  be  a  sceptic,  but,  whether 
you  like  it  or  not,  compels  you  to  believe.  In  what- 
ever else  you  believe — and  I  am  no  enemy  to  belief 
if  it  be  not  belief  in  evil — you  must  believe  in  Nature, 
which  you  hear,  see,  touch,  taste,  breathe  ;  which 
has  formed  you,  atom  by  atom,  in  your  mother's 
womb,  and  reared  you  to  the  stature  of  a  man,  and 
will  cause  you  to  decline  in  age,  and  will  take  your 
Hfe  in  the  end,  when  you  pay  '  Nature's  debt.'  And 
I  want  you,  as  a  preliminary  of  action,  to  consider 
with  me  what  is  Nature's  meaning  and  intention  with 
respect  to  us,  the  most  highly  gifted  of  her  creatures 
on  this  planet — how  she  intends  us  to  live,  what  are 
her  commands — in  order  that  we  may  learn  them  and 
understand  and  obey." 

A  number  of  people  volunteered  for  the  new  com- 
munal life,  but  Mr.  0 'Grady  was  not  satisfied  with 
the  extent  of  the  other  element  he  deemed  necessary  : 
supporters  in  the  background  who  would  provide 
funds  to  a  certain  amount,  to  start  the  commune 


LITTERATEURS  AND  THE  LAND     267 

and  keep  it  going  till  it  could  be  self-suppoiting. 
Several  indeed  were  willing,  but  not  enough.  The 
unfolding  of  the  commune  scheme  was  as  interesting 
as  a  bracing,  outdoor,  delightfully-told  story,  though 
coming  to  an  imsatisfactory  end.  "A.  E.''  was  in- 
terested, but  sceptical,  all  the  time.  He  thought  that 
only  the  folk  on  the  land  from  childhood  could  suc- 
cessfully deal  with  it,  and  that  while  they  might  or 
must  grow  co-operative,  they  would  not  become 
either  socialistic  or  communistic,  at  least  in  our  time. 
Mr.  0 'Grady  maintained  that  the  farmers,  even  co- 
operative farmers,  would  not  see  or  solve  one-half  of 
Ireland's  problems.     Which  is  doubtless  true.^ 

However,  the  enthusiasm  of  two  of  om^  leading 
literary  men  for  the  soul  in  the  soil  and  the  souls  and 
bodies  above  it  has  been  entirely  heartening,  and  has 
led  to  outcomes  in  agricultural  prose — if  the  term  is 
pardonable — not  easy,  or  not  possible,  to  match  in 
the  outer  world.  Of  course  other  Irishmen,  writers  as 
difierent  as  Padraic  Colum  and  Shan  Bullock,  have 
been  incidentally  interested,  and  have  interested  us, 
in  the  land  and  its  appeal,  while  modern  Irish  prose 
takes  us  frequently  to  field  and  farm.  But  "A.  E.'' 
and  O'Grady  are  in  a  special  sense  agricultural  heroes, 
with  a  certain  fine  essence  of  the  soil  even  in  their 
journalism. 

^  The  allies  of  the  co-operative  movement,  the  United  Irishwomen, 
organised  in  1911  "to  unite  Irishwomen  for  the  social  and  economic 
advantage  of  Ireland,"  promise  already  to  prove  exceedingly  helpful  and 
humanising.  They  co-operate  also  with  the  Gaelic  League,  feeling  that 
Ireland  can  never  be  rebuilt  without  the  Gaelic  ideal,  and  the  fostering 
of  the  best  in  the  nation. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

WOEKERS'  GLEAMS   AND  GLOOM 

While  Mr.  George  Eussell  and  others  under  Sir 
Horace  Plunkett  advanced  the  cause  of  agricultural 
co-operation,  an  industrial  movement,  whose  guiding 
ideas  and  developments  show  a  certain  diversity, 
came  also  into  being.  Many  thousands,  in  collective 
and  individual  capacities,  have  helped  the  mission 
variously,  according  to  their  acumen  and  opportu- 
nities. From  its  early  years  the  Gaelic  League  in 
practice  has  been  secondarily  an  industrial  move- 
ment. So  far  were  the  industrial  pleas  and  pleadings 
pushed  that  some  types  of  mind  were  offended  on 
occasion,  deeming  the  insistent  stressing  of  the  duty 
of  wearing  Irish-made  clothes,  and  using  Irish  articles 
in  all  possible  quarters  from  the  workshop  and  the 
kitchen  to  the  boudoir  (or  griandn),  a  little  out  of 
place  in  an  intellectual  movement.  The  descent  from 
psychology  and  the  larger  phases  of  an  Irish  civilisa- 
tion to  Irish  soap  and  matches  rather  hurt  their  sus- 
ceptibilities. Others  considered  that  there  was  too 
much  emphasising  of  the  obvious,  that  any  but  a 
half-witted  people  would  see  the  necessity  of  sup- 
porting native  industries.  At  the  same  time  the 
question  was  by  no  means  so  simple  as  it  seemed. 
Sundry  Irish  industries  had  been  killed  by  English 
legislation,  or  the  consequences  of  legislation  ;  strange 
traditions   and   topsy-turvydom   had   long   existed ; 


WORKERS'  GLEAMS  AND  GLOOM     269 

some,  including  not  a  few  co-operators,  believed  that 
the  main  part  of  Ireland's  business  was  to  be  a  supply- 
agency,  a  grazing  ground  and  kitchen-garden,  for 
Great  Britain  ;  the  home  wants  and  market  were 
not  seriously  considered  at  all.  Not  only  did  Ireland 
import  munbers  of  articles  she  might  well  produce  or 
manufacture  herself,  but  actual  home  industries  and 
manufactures  were  often  thoughtlessly  or  wilfully 
ignored. 

Things  as  they  were,  and  things  as  they  ought  to 
be,  were  vigorously  set  forth  by  the  industrial  pro- 
pagandists. Mental  health  and  enthusiasm  were  the 
first  results  achieved  by  the  Gaelic  League.  Surely 
and  steadily  the  pioneers  became  more  constructive 
and  more  practical.  They  realised  quite  clearly  that 
without  a  healthy  and  sane  social  Ireland  their  intel- 
lectual and  other  schemes  could  not  really  mature. 
They  had,  as  it  were,  the  mental  model  of  a  true 
urban  and  rural  civilisation,  they  kept  it  before  the 
people's  mind,  and,  little  or  much,  they  set  them- 
selves to  realise  it  objectively  so  far  as  they  could. 
If  the  results  as  yet,  though  appreciable,  are  a  long 
way  below  their  dreams,  we  must  remember  that 
some  of  the  problems  are  old,  complicated,  and 
grievous,  that  certain  root-issues  require  tackUng  by 
legislative  authorit}^  and  that  in  any  case  ameliora- 
tion and  growth  take  time.  Mea.nwhile  thought  has 
been  sown  and  preaching  practised  in  many  lines. 
Various  bodies  have  come  into  line  with  the  Gaelic 
League  on  the  question  of  the  furtherance  of  Irish 
industries,  while  there  are  special  Irish  Industrial 
Development  Associations  :  a  national  one,  a  re- 
gistered body,  and  others  in  Cork,  Belfast,  &c.     The 


270     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

industrial  and  art  exhibitions  in  connection  with  the 
Oireachtas  and  Feiseanna  and  the  Sinn  Fein  organi- 
sation are  all  parts  in  a  popularising  programme. 
The  Dublin  national  weeklies  and  the  better  pro- 
vincial papers  have  devoted  much  attention  to  the 
question  as  a  whole  and  in  detail.  The  Irish  Indus- 
trial Journal,  Dublin,  has  taken,  as  its  name  implies, 
the  general  field  for  its  province,  while  the  Dublin 
Leader,  edited  by  Mr.  D.  P.  Moran,  a  moderately 
Irish,  rather  pro-clerical  organ,  much  of  which  might 
be  written  by  a  cautious  parish  priest  with  a  rough 
sense  of  humour,  has  stood  for  the  Irish  products 
that  are  "  as  good  and  as  cheap  "  as  imported  pro- 
ducts. Repeated  efiorts  have  been  made  to  help 
Irish  workers  directly  or  indirectly,  or  rather  to  put 
them  in  the  way  of  helping  themselves.  Thus  one  of 
the  chief  organisers  (till  lately)  of  the  Gaelic  League, 
Tomas  O'Concannon,  a  vivid  personality,  known  also 
as  an  Irish  writer,  has  been  tireless  in  his  efforts  to 
secure  wider  attention  and  a  wider  market  for  the 
work  of  neglected  weavers  and  others  in  the  west. 
For  talented  young  folk  in  the  poorer  quarters  posts 
of  various  kinds  have  been  found  elsewhere.  The 
Gaelic  League  itself  established  a  scholarship  scheme 
designed  to  aid  boys  and  girls  from  poverty-stricken 
homes  to  become  trained  teachers.     And  so  on. 

Of  individual  enterprises  inspired  by  the  move- 
ment those  of  Captain  Otway  Cufie  in  Kilkemiy  have 
been  the  most  remarkable.  An  ex- Army  man  and  a 
Protestant,  he  gave  his  energy  and  his  means  with 
high  enthusiasm  to  the  new  labours ;  and  the  social, 
industrial,  and  other  developments,  including  the 
Kilkenny  Woollen  Mills,  the  Kilkenny  Wood  Workers, 


WORKERS'  GLEAMS  AND  GLOOM     271 

tobacco  fields,  a  theatre,  and  workers'  homes,  for 
which  he  was  responsible  in  the  Marble  Town  and 
the  neighbourhood,  afford  material  for  one  of  the 
brightest  chapters  of  latter-day  Irish  history.  The 
workers  in  the  mill  and  workshop,  the  readers  in  the 
free  library,  the  children  in  the  Irish  classes,  the 
players  and  audience  in  the  people's  theatre,  the 
story-tellers,  singers,  pipers,  and  populace  at  the 
Feis,  he  saw  as  happy  and  harmonious  parts  of  a 
great  whole.  He  became  Mayor  of  Kilkenny,  and 
his  name  and  example  were  an  inspiration  far  through 
Ireland.  To  the  sorrow  of  all  classes  he  died  at  the 
end  of  1911,  but  the  work  he  inaugurated  goes  on, 
wliile  his  relative  and  co-pioneer,  the  Countess  of 
Desart,  is  spiritedly  to  the  fore.  It  is  calculated  that 
in  ten  years  they  expended  £70,000  in  the  different 
industrial  projects  and  developments  in  Kilkenny. 
Captain  Cuffe  was  quick  to  seize  the  significance  of 
the  rising  GaeUc  idea  and  its  possibilities  in  the  way 
of  character  and  creativeness,  and  he  lived  up  to  his 
faith. 

Speaking  generally,  a  considerable  public  opinion 
in  favour  of  Irish  industries  and  products — entailing 
often  what  may  be  called  a  system  of  voluntary  pro- 
tection— has  been  created  since  the  beginning  of  the 
century.  Home  manufacturers  have  derived  very  de- 
cided benefit  from  the  movement.  At  present  over 
500  firms  use  the  Irish  Trade  Mark,  which  means 
that  their  products  are  as  Irish  as  they  can  possibly 
be.  The  business  of  meeting  and  securing  the  home 
market,  Ireland's  own,  has  been  advanced  an  appre- 
ciable stage.  In  another  matter  much  insisted  upon, 
the  development  of  trade  relations  with  the  Continent, 


272     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

steady  progress  is  also  being  made,  as  shown  by 
official  figures  from  sundry  sources.  For  instance, 
the  value  of  Ireland's  direct  exports  to  France  in 
1910  was  nearly  double  that  of  her  direct  exports 
in  1909 — of  the  indirect  trade,  goods  which  pass 
through  the  hands  of  English  firms  en  route,  we  have 
no  official  information. 

The  relation  of  the  clergy  to  this  movement,  as  to 
so  many  other  things,  has  varied  greatly.  Bishops 
and  priests  have  been  criticised  with  great  candour 
and  sometimes  severity,  for  thoughtless  or  deliberate 
importation  of  church  materials,  statuary,  pictures, 
and  other  ecclesiastical  requirements,  while  inciden- 
tally their  taste  in  art  has  sometimes  been  the  sub- 
ject of  mingled  satire  and  irony.  On  the  other  hand, 
some  bishops  and  numerous  priests  have  given  sincere 
and  sustained  support  to  the  industrial  cause.  In 
many  districts  the  priests  have  been  its  most  ardent 
advocates.  Of  all-round  pioneers  the  most  expressive 
example  I  know  is  that  of  Father  Matt  Maguire  in 
Ulster.  In  the  last  decade  he  has  been  successively 
in  three  parishes,  and  has  left  his  mark  on  them  all. 
The  third,  Cill  Sgire  (Killskeery),  Co.  Tyrone,  he  has 
helped  to  make  in  a  measure  famous.  Everything 
has  been  improved  and  brightened  ;  industries,  arts, 
games,  bands  made  regular  features  of  life,  while 
there  are  scii^s  of  Irish  speakers — taught  by  native- 
speaking  travelling  teachers — in  a  quarter  where  Irish 
had  not  been  spoken,  I  think,  for  a  couple  of  genera- 
tions. The  local  Feis  in  this  now  "  model  parish  " 
is  one  of  the  great  GaeUc  events  of  the  Ulster  year. 
Father  Matt  is  one  of  the  most  unassuming  of  men. 
I  have  seen  him  at  several  meetings  of  the  executive 


WORKERS'  GLEAMS  AND  GLOOM     273 

of  the  Gaelic  League,  and  never  heard  him  make  a 
remark  at  one  of  them.  He  has  come  all  the  way 
from  Tyrone  to  DubKn  to  Hsten,  to  learn  the  latest 
developments  and  duties,  and  to  vote  when  voting 
was  needed.  The  notion  of  domineering  or  dictation 
in  connection  with  him  is  humorous.  He  just  sets 
his  people  in  the  way  of  doing  things  that  are  worthy 
of  them,  and  is  happy  when  they  take  his  advice  and 
live  up  to  it.  When  a  noted  Irish  visitor.  Catholic, 
Protestant,  or  Presbyterian,  pays  a  passing  visit  to 
Cill  Sgire  he  is  able  to  call  up  musicians,  singers,  and 
dancers  and  arrange  an  informal  ceilidh  in  about 
twenty  minutes. 

In  the  ranks  of  labour  itself  some  bold  and  able 
types  have  arisen,  notably  in  Dublin  and  Belfast. 
Whether  they  preach  Socialism,  co-operation,  or  trade 
unionism,  they  keep  their  eyes  as  a  rule  on  Irish 
conditions  and  characteristics.  They  make  headway 
with  their  own  class  and  meet  varied  opposition  or 
misunderstanding  amongst  sundry  clergymen,  farmers, 
manufacturers,  publicans,  slum-owners,  food  adul- 
terators, those  who  want  no  change,  and  those  who 
say  that  nothing  particular  can  be  done  pending  the 
establishment  of  a  national  legislative  authority. 
The  clerical  opposition  is  mainly  to  anything  that 
seems  to  savour  of  Socialism,  though  some  have  the 
singular  notion,  as  their  utterances  show,  that  a 
"  poor "  class  is  a  direct  creation  or  design  of  Pro- 
vidence, and  to  them  a  social  state  without  poverty, 
and  a  measure  of  abject  poverty,  is  unthinkable. 
Much  of  what  they  ascribe  in  a  cloudy  way  to  Sin 
and  Devil  springs  from  palpably  anti-social,  selfish, 
and  materialistic  factors.     The  social  criticism  and 

S 


274     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

reconstructive  theories  they  have  heard  of  late  years 
have  staggered  them.     The  most  incisive  of  such 
criticism  from  the  labour  side  has  come  from  Mr. 
James  Connolly,  who  after  a  term  in  the  United 
States,  where  he  edited  the  Sociahst  Harj),  returned 
to  Dublin  in  1910.     He  is  a  forcible  speaker,  a  man 
of  wide  reading  and  much  thinking,  and  a  trenchant 
writer.     In  the  summer  of  1910  he  gave  us  a  taste 
of  his  quality  in  a  little  book  on  Labour,  Nationality, 
and  Religion,  which  was  a  challenge  and  a  message 
rather  exceptional  in  Ireland.     Avowedly  a  reply  to 
a   series   of    Lenten   lectures   by   the    Rev.   Robert 
Kane,   S.J.,   against   an   imaginary   monster   called 
Socialism,  it  contained  much  to  set  toilers  in  a  spirited 
and  constructive  mood.     It  began  by  carrying  the 
war  into  Africa,  for  it  quoted  Church  Fathers  against 
the  alarmed  and  eloquent  Jesuit,  told  home  truths 
about  the  place  of  the  laity  in  the  Church,  and  let 
in  gleams  of  historical  hght  very  trying  on  certain 
tender  eyes  in  Ireland.     The  more  elaborate  volume, 
Labour  in  Irish  History,  pubhshed  later  in  the  year, 
was  an  original  and  brilliant  exposition  of  facts  and 
factors  long  ignored  or  steeped  in  moonsliine,   de- 
stroyed some  middle-class  and  clerical  legends,  and 
conveyed  a  brave  message  to  democracy.     Mr.  Con- 
nolly  works   as   an   organiser   for   Cumannacht   na 
hEireann  (the  Socialist  Party  of  Ireland)  and  also 
the  Irish  Transport  Workers'  Union,  of  which  Mr. 
James   Larkin  was   the  principal  founder.     During 
strikes  in   Belfast,   Cork,   and  Dublin,   Mr.   Larkin 
acted  in  Ireland  for  the  Dockers'  Union  (Britain), 
but,  differing  from  the  heads  of  the  latter  on  their 
attitude  to  the  Irish  strikers  at  a  crucial  stage,  he 


WORKERS'  GLEAMS  AND  GLOOM  275 

threw  in  his  lot  with  the  Irishmen  and  set  himself 
to  the  task  of  organising  an  independent  body.  Over 
this  and  later  developments  there  came  considerable 
controversy  and  trouble,  which  do  not  concern  us 
here.  Mr.  Larkin  has  proved  a  deep-hearted,  im- 
passioned, "  undiplomatic  "  missionary  who  preaches 
by  shocks — in  Ireland  anybody  who  interferes  with 
social  selfishness  is  not  considered  "  diplomatic  "  or 
"  tactful "  in  liigh  places.  He  founded  the  Irish 
Worker  early  in  1911  ;  its  plain  speaking  and  his  own 
popularity  with  immbers  of  workers  brought  it  a  large 
circulation  from  the  outset.  Mr.  Larkin  and  some  of 
his  friends  have  also  started  on  the  difficult  task  of 
creating  a  progressive  municipal  spirit  amongst  Dublin 
toilers,  and  of  leading  a  militant  labour  party  into  the 
Corporation,  where  a  "  whisky-ring  "  and  other  anti- 
social forces  have  long  been  dominant.  Mr.  Larkin 
and  four  of  his  friends  won  seats  at  the  elections  in 
January  1912.  In  point  of  capacity  and  public  sjDirit 
the  DubHn  Corporation  as  a  whole,  like  the  Dublin 
County  Council,  is  far  behind  a  number  of  the  councils 
in  the  provinces. 

The  Dublin  labour  world  contains  other  interesting 
personalities  ;  one  of  them,  Peadar  O'Maicin,  a  house- 
painter,  treats  of  social  questions  in  Irish.  Like  the 
Provost  of  Trinity  College,  he  has  also  a  taste  for 
Esperanto.  The  Socialist  Party  of  Ireland  illustrates 
more  diversity  and  raciness  of  character  than  almost 
any  other  body  in  the  capital ;  some  of  its  speakers 
might  have  come  straight  from  the  "  Abbey  "  boards, 
or  the  Ulster  Literary  Theatre,  whose  Dublin  visits 
brought  us  kindred  Hght  and  shade.  Yet  it  looms 
rather  horribly  in  the  imagination  of  metropolitan 


276     THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

priests  and  of  graziers  in  the  neighbouring  county  of 
Meath  and  elsewhere.  Bad  as  are  great  stretches  of 
Dubhn  slumdom  and  its  borderlands,  the  said  priests 
do  surprisingly  little  in  the  way  of  social  work,  though 
Franciscans  carry  on  a  well-meaning  temperance 
crusade.  There  are  many  DubUns — Irish,  non- Irish, 
and  some  that  are  almost  non-human.  I  hope  there 
is  no  place  else  in  Ireland  where  numbers  of  children 
are  so  utterly  miserable  and  neglected,  so  crying  a 
disgrace  to  Church  and  State.  It  is  easy  to  get  to 
Wonderland  from  Dublin,  and  equally  easy  to  get  to 
what  might  pass  for  the  gates  of  Hell.  So  much 
beauty  on  all  sides  of  Dublin  might  well  seem  generous 
waste  or  glorious  extravagance  on  the  part  of  Nature. 
If  there  is  anything  more  depressing  than  a  study  of 
Dubhn's  slums  in  detail  it  is  a  study  of  Dublin's 
slum-dwellers  in  crowds,  as  when  a  national  proces- 
sion that  represents  some  living  and  hopeful  idea 
passes  near  the  poorer  quarters.  The  inertia  and 
weariness  and  cold,  clammy  hopelessness  of  those 
street  and  quayside  crowds  make  an  awesome  con- 
trast. They  look  like  people  who  have  no  healthy 
interests,  no  fresh  and  natural  desires,  nothing  that 
the  wildest  imagination  could  call  dreams  ;  people 
who  go  through  life  as  a  narrow,  burdensome,  unin- 
telligible pilgrimage  ;  they  have  lost  the  capacity  of 
sympathy,  understanding,  and  hope.  Foreign  eccle- 
siastics speaking  now  and  then  in  Dublin  dwell  on 
its  wonderful  faith  and  piety ;  they  never  see  the 
deplorable  and  harrowing  sides.  Much  is  said  of  the 
constant  and  congested  congregations  in  the  churches  ; 
close  contact  with  elements  of  the  same  congregations 
reveals  much  that  is  squaUd  or  pitiful. 


WORKERS'  GLEAMS  AND  GLOOM  277 

Throughout  the  Irish  workers'  world  in  general  we 
see  the  association  of  stagnation  and  restiveness, 
pessimism  and  resurgence,  gloom  and  gleam.  Its 
missionaries  are  mostly  laymen,  and  generally  speak- 
ing they  do  not  belong  to  any  of  the  avowed  pohtical 
parties,  though  they  include  a  few  Sinn  Fein  men, 
P.  T.  Daly,  for  instance,  and  though  Mr.  Joseph 
Devlin,  M.P.,  and  a  few  other  prominent  Parlia- 
mentarians are  distinctly  democratic.  The  general 
Irish  revival  has  brought  labour  hope  and  help,  the 
co-operative  movement  has  softened  some  farmers' 
hearts  in  its  regard,  and,  in  another  direction,  it  is 
pleasing  to  note  the  widening  success  of  the  small 
farm  and  cottage  prize  schemes  in  connection  with 
many  of  the  Departmental  "  County  Committees." 
While  critical  on  some  points  the  inspectors  of  late 
years  report  more  and  more  indices  of  taste,  industry, 
and  new  interest  in  work  and  life.  The  comfortable, 
flower-fronted  cottage  becomes  more  common.  In 
cities,  such  as  Dublin,  Belfast,  and  Cork,  and  in  some 
of  the  larger  towns,  a  socialistic  propaganda,  gene- 
rally with  an  Irish  flavour,  has  begim  to  make  head- 
way. The  older  Gael  of  course  had  socialistic  and 
communistic  leanings,  and  something  of  the  spirit 
remained  to  our  own  day  with  the  poorer  people, 
though  Enghsh  legislation  and  Irish  ecclesiasticism 
had  driven  nearly  every  trace  of  it  from  the  middle 
classes.  Various  developments  of  later  years  have 
conduced  to  a  certain  recovery  of  it,  sometimes  un- 
conscious. One  of  the  outer  signs  of  the  progress  of 
Sociahsm,  or  what  some  call  a  simple  theory  of  the 
application  of  Christianity  to  life,  is  the  fact  that 
CathoHc  prelates  and  priests  preach  repeatedly  in  an 


278     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

impassioned  and  confusing  way  against  what  they 
imagine  Sociahsm  to  be.  They  have  no  conception 
of  evolutionary  Socialism  ;  they  dwell  in  fantastic 
style  on  the  cruder  utterances  of  the  earlier  and  some 
of  the  later  socialists,  though  giving  the  Devil  the 
main  credit,  or  discredit,  for  the  thing  or  the  theory. 
They  do  not  appear  to  believe  for  a  moment  that 
Catholicism  nowadays  can  be  practically  illustrated 
in  economics  or  lived  in  the  everyday  social  order. 
Some  younger  priests  see  the  irony  and  humi- 
liation of  the  position,  the  unchristian  spectacle  of 
Catholic  ecclesiastics  as  impassioned  defenders  of 
worldly  property,  honouring  the  rich  or  well-to-do 
in  this  world  and  bidding  the  poor  be  content  with 
the  prospect  of  heaven  in  the  next ;  forgetting  or 
ignoring  the  great  fact  that  the  Catholic  ideal  is 
coUectivist,  not  individualistic  as  the  term  is  usually 
understood.  They  are  sensitive  on  the  subject  of 
clerical  graziers,  of  whom  we  still  have  some,  and 
clerical  patrons  of  the  Stock  Exchange,  of  whom  we 
have  many.  The  instinct  of  those  younger  priests  is 
to  help  the  poor  to  raise  their  character,  brighten 
their  environment,  and  widen  the  opportunities  of 
their  children  through  higher  education  and  other 
things  that  logically  follow.  They  see  that  all  such 
work  is  ''  godly  " — and  that  mere  talk  about  Pro- 
vidence regarded  as  the  head  of  a  juridical  eccle- 
siastical system  is  not  necessarily  anything  of  the 
kind — even  though  described  as  "  socialistic "  in 
Ireland.  It  is  often  difficult  for  the  young  clergy  to 
help  the  work  forward,  and  dangerous  to  be  suspected 
of  socialistic  leanings.  So  sometimes,  in  the  dioceses 
under  old-fashioned  or  autocratic  bishops,  they  look 


WORKERS'  GLEAMS  AND  GLOOM  279 

on  helplessly  and  pensively,  feeling  lonely  amid  the 
waste  of  life,  and  painfully  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
official  Irish  Catholicism  is  socially  ineffective  or  a 
compromise.  This  holds  true  even  of  some  Columban 
Leaguers  who  have  come  out  with  high  hopes  from 
Maynooth.  Sometimes  the  co-operative  movement, 
sometimes  the  industrial  movement,  sometimes  the 
Gaelic  League — which  are  not  nominally  or  avowedly 
"  socialistic  " — give  them  relieving  scope.  Still  the 
crucial  questions  for  Catholicism  in  Ireland  remain 
unanswered — Can  its  official  theology  be  liberalised 
and  spiritualised  ?  Can  it  be  applied,  as  the  Catholic 
Bishop  of  Ross  ^  asked  some  years  ago,  more  practi- 
cally to  everyday  life  ?  At  present  it  is  far  too  little 
either  of  a  gospel  or  a  philosophy.  So  it  does  not 
enlighten  and  inspire  souls,  or  check  anti-social  sins 
and  evils,  as  it  might  were  it  truly  evangelical,  liberal, 
and  vital. 

^  The  Bishop  of  Ross,  Dr.  Kelly,  keeps  very  closely  and  interestedly  to 
Irish  realities.  He  emphasises  the  need  of  the  development  of  Ireland's 
internal  trade,  the  supply  by  Irish  workers  themselves  of  the  home  wants, 
both  in  foodstuffs  and  manufactured  articles.  He  desires  to  see  more 
industrial  villages  and  factories  of  the  Dripsey  and  Blarney  character,  so 
that  the  people  while  earning  good  wages  could  live  under  pleasant  con- 
ditions. He  urges  young  men  to  cultivate  the  habit  of  reading  solid  books. 
He  is  one  of  our — unhappily  too  few — really  social-spirited  bishops. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

SMALL   HOLDINGS  AND   GREAT  HEARTS 

The  mixed  and  often  unexpected  nature  of  social, 
industrial,  educational,  and  even  intellectual  matters 
in  rural  Ireland  may  be  better  understood  if  we  take 
a  particularly  poor  region  and  study  it  closely  for 
a  little  while.  A  trip  due  west  from  Galway  city 
will  serve  the  purpose  admirably.  Along  the  Cois 
Ehairrge,  or  seaside,  road  we  find  much  that  is 
forlorn,  much  to  suggest  that  the  toil  of  life  on  the 
bleak  little  holdings  must  be  a  grim  ordeal.  All  the 
same  it  has  certain  pleasant  and  even  romantic  latter- 
day  associations.  Some  nine  or  ten  miles  from  Galway 
is  the  village  of  An  Spideal  (Spiddal)  whose  boys' 
school  in  recent  years  has  achieved  distinction  as  a 
centre  of  bi-lingual  education.  In  the  neighbourhood 
one  of  the  most  successful  of  the  Gaelic  Training 
Colleges  holds  its  session  in  the  late  summer  and 
early  autumn,  attracting  lay  and  clerical  students 
from  centres  as  remote  as  Dublin  and  even  from 
quarters  outside  Ireland.  From  a  humble  home  in 
this  neighbourhood  came  Michedl  Breathnach,^  a  de- 
lightful writer  and  individuality,  of  whom  more  anon. 
Leaving  An  Spideal  and  heading  for  An  Gort  M6r  we 
come  to  a  wonder- world  of  wildness,  especially  from 
Costello  onward.  In  this  chastening  and  impressive 
place   of   lakes    and   heathery    hills   we    pass   eight 

^  Mee-haul  Branoch,  "ch  "  sounded  as  in  "  locli." 

280 


SMALL   HOLDINGS  281 

bi-lingual  schools,  where  teachers  of  a  new  type  work 
out  new  plans  and  methods,  but  often  complain  that 
official  programmes  have  no  sufficient  relation  to  the 
needs  and  claims  of  the  countryside.  At  Costello 
the  sea  comes  up  into  the  land  in  a  long  narrow 
creek  that  suggests  a  Norwegian  fjord.  It  is  pleasant 
to  see  the  sails — especially  the  new  white  ones — pass 
round  the  houses  by  the  water's  edge,  glide  round 
little  promontories,  move  off  again,  and  gradually 
creep  into  the  country.  The  boats  come  to  load  turf 
(or  peat)  for  Galway,  Aran,  and  Clare,  and  doubtless 
an  odd  keg  of  untaxed  whisky  is  taken  oft"  w^th  the 
turf.  Gortmore  is  in  its  way  a  wonderful  place. 
AU  round  the  Beanna  Beola  stand  frowning  and 
serrated,  piled  up  like  huge  pillows,  an  epic  of  deso- 
lation. Here  it  is  that  Padraic  MacPiarais — our 
boldest  educational  pioneer,  described  fully  a  little 
later — finds  his  Tir  na  nOg,  when  he  can  spare  a  few 
days  from  St.  Enda's  College,  Dublin.  We  can  see 
his  cottage  across  the  lake.  We  are  shown  by  the 
old  folk  where  Sean  Mhatias,  the  strange  old  man 
of  his  story  and  drama,  losagdn,  used  to  live ; 
we  are  told  indeed  by  some  that  he  is  really  not 
dead  yet. 

Going  onward  from  Gortmore  to  Rosmuc  we  come 
to  know  acute  phases  of  the  emigration  problem — 
indeed  it  presses  all  the  way  from  Galway.  The 
social  connection  between  Rosmuc  and  Boston  is 
very  much  closer  than  that  between  Rosmuc  and 
DubUn.  To  the  local  imagination  Boston  is  a  sort 
of  exalted  Rosmuc  across  the  water.  Returned  emi- 
grants will  tell  us  of  Boston  shops  where  Connemara 
folk  transact  all  their  business  in  Irish ;   at  home  in 


282     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

Irish-speaking  Rosmuc  there  are  English  sermons,  or 
were  till  a  year  or  two  ago  at  any  rate.  In  Boston 
every  Thursday  Irish  *'  servant "  girls  have  a  half- 
hohday,  when  they  go  to  favourite  haUs  and  have 
Irish  songs,  seanchus,  and  dancing  go  ledr.  Every 
item  of  news  from  Rosmuc  and  kindred  places  is 
discussed  at  these  gatherings.  Some  Gaels  have  been 
puzzled  over  the  fact  that  it  is  difficult  to  induce 
Connemara  boys  and  girls  to  take — or  keep — situa- 
tions in  Dublin,  &c.,  while  they  show  no  hesitation 
about  faring  as  far  away  as  America.  It  is  forgotten 
that  dozens  of  friends  and  acquaintances  are  before 
them  in  places  like  Boston,  Portland,  &c.  Boston 
and  Portland  are  very  near  in  Connemara's  imagi- 
nation ;  Dubhn  is  very  remote.  DubUn  indeed  does 
not  understand  the  west  or  the  western  emigration 
question  at  all.  Dublin-dwelling  folk  do  not  realise 
the  conditions  of  existence  west  of  Galway.  Take 
the  case  of  a  man  with  a  holding  valued  at  £3,  most 
of  it  rocky  land.  He  must  work  this  with  his  spade, 
and  his  staple  crop  is  potatoes,  which  feed  himself 
and  his  family.  The  family,  almost  invariably  a  big 
one,  grows  up.  What  is  to  become  of  the  ten  or 
eleven  children  ?  One  boy  gets  the  land,  one  or  two 
of  the  girls  may  get  married ;  the  rest  go  away  to 
Portland  or  Boston  or  another.  Many  do  well  and 
send  home  a  good  deal  of  money.  Not  a  few  return, 
when  they  have  saved  what  they  think  a  fortune  ; 
the  boys  obtain  land,  if  possible,  the  girls  marry,  and 
all  settle  down  to  something  like  the  old  famihar  life. 
This  returning  when  there  is  any  chance  of  a  settle- 
ment in  the  old  place  is  a  notable  fact  in  connection 
with  Connemara.     The  crux  of  the  whole  question  is 


SMALL    HOLDINGS  283 

land — with  industries  allied  to  agriculture.  Young 
men  have  declared  again  and  again  that  they  would 
not  emigrate  if  they  could  obtain  pieces  of  land  ; 
none  of  the  girls  would  go  if  they  had  the  choice  of 
getting  married  at  home.  There  are  thousands  of 
acres  of  wild  moorland  in  Connemara  which  could  be 
reclaimed  and  made  happy  home-haunts.  Hundreds 
of  young  men  would  be  heartily  glad  of  the  opportu- 
nity of  taking  part  in  the  reclamation.  The  Conne- 
mara man's  capacity  for  spade-work  on  his  native 
soil,  to  which  he  is  so  intensely  devoted,  is  astonish- 
ing. Given  a  fair  sphere  he  would  do  wonders  in  the 
way  of  intensive  culture. 

From  other  parts  of  Connacht,  men  and  women, 
boys  and  girls,  are  obliged  to  go  away  to  spend 
months  of  the  year  in  the  gardens  and  harvest-fields 
of  Britain.  About  November  they  return  in  hun- 
dreds ;  they  spend  a  night  or  two  in  Dublin,  often 
on  the  pavements  outside  the  North  Wall  or  the 
Broadstone  station,  a  pathetic  medley  indeed,  and 
then  crowd  themselves  into  their  particular  compart- 
ments of  the  early  morning  train  to  the  West.  On 
these  occasions  they  seem  sadly  different  from  what 
they  are  in  their  own  humble  yet  genial  western 
homes.  On  the  homeward  journey  they  pass  through 
great  tracts  of  grass  lands,  more  or  less  waste  lands, 
and — extraordinary  economic  irony — by  or  near 
farms  whose  tenants  are  complaining  bitterly  of  the 
scarcity,  the  dearness,  and  sometimes  the  inefiiciency 
of  labour.  They  also  bring  back  shoddy  and  other 
cheap  articles,  and  home  manufacturers  complain. 
Furthermore,  they — like  others  who  do  not  go  far 
afield — bring  back  trivial  or  trashy  publications,  never 


284     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

a  serious  one  within  measurable  distance  of  literature. 
From  time  to  time  certain  bishops  and  priests  preach 
fine-sounding  sermons  against  the  evils  of  vain  and 
vicious  reading,  and  often  give  no  help,  but  some- 
times positive  hindrance,  to  the  starting  of  free 
libraries  or  pleasant  reading-rooms  through  which 
taste  could  be  developed.  So  Ireland  loses  at  every 
point. 

As  for  Connemara,  it  has  several  further  problems. 
The  fishing,  the  hand-loom  weaving  and  other  indus- 
tries are  in  sore  need  of  development.  These  and 
other  improvements,  including  technical  and  indus- 
trial training  that  would  help  young  folk  to  find 
careers  at  home,  would  incidentally  do  much  to  stop 
the  poteen,  or  whisky-stilhng  "  industry,"  one  of  the 
great  curses  of  Connemara.  It  has  done  much  to 
poison  and  destroy  Connemara,  the  mainland  and 
the  islands.  To  a  great  extent  the  traffic  is  "  winked 
at  "  by  the  "  authorities  "  ;  there  has  been  scarcely 
any  attempt  to  interfere  with  the  flow  of  poteen  on 
the  more  or  less  social  occasions  :  weddings,  christen- 
ings, and  so  on.  Very  often  the  police  are  partakers  ; 
the  "  bottle  for  the  sergeant  "  is  a  recognised  feature 
in  several  places.  Poteen  has  come  to  be  associated 
in  a  strange  degree  with  the  expression  of  the  social 
and  even  religious,  or  semi-religious,  feelings  of  the 
people.  Thus  at  "  wakes  "  and  funerals  it  is  given 
go  leor.  "  Wakes  "  have  some  touching  and  moving 
characteristics  with  a  tradition  of  dateless  genera- 
tions behind  them.  The  serving  of  poteen  in  later 
times  is  as  regular  a  fact  as  the  telling  of  stories  of 
the  Fianna  by  the  elders,  as  they  watch  round  the 
corpse,  or  the  haimting  caoine  or  sgread  na  maidne 


SMALL   HOLDINGS  285 

over  the  dead.  The  good  and  the  bad  are  intertwined, 
and  it  is  hard  to  break  the  evil  spell.  Young  priests 
have  found  serious  difficulties  in  the  way  of  reform 
at  wakes  and  funerals,  and  the  old  are  not  always 
sympathetic  or  helpful.  On  the  occasions  of  weddings 
in  parts  of  Connemara  the  poteen  evil  has  been  simply 
rampant.  The  wild  and  frenzied  scenes  that  take 
place  at  various  musters,  as  a  consequence  of  poteen 
drinking,  are  startling.  It  is  all  going  far  to  destroy 
a  people  with  many  fine  and  delightful  traits  ;  in 
fact,  it  is  their  social  and  hospitable  spirit,  their 
passion  for  life,  expressed  though  it  be  in  a  crude 
way,  that  is  largely  responsible  for  this  passage  to 
destruction.  The  problem  is  the  substitution  of 
natural  joys  for  unnatural  ones  in  bleak  and  kindly 
Connemara,  beginning  with  brighter  education  and 
opportunities  for  the  young.  Much  the  same  may 
be  said  of  some  scores  of  other  places  in  Ireland. 

When  these  or  other  Connacht  foll^  are  moved  out 
of  congested  districts,  from  patches  of  rock  or  bog  to 
economic  holdings,  other  acute  and  interesting  prob- 
lems arise.  The  congest  has  to  be  educated  into  a 
new  system  of  working,  and  a  certain  transformation 
in  himself  is  needed.  Some  of  our  co-operative 
pioneers  have  dwelt  on  the  necessity  of  serious  train- 
ing of  the  congests  on  experimental  farms,  before 
each  secured  an  allotment  as  his  own  property.  It 
was  urged  in  the  Irish  Nation  that  the  better  plan 
would  be  thorough  social  co-operative  farming  for 
the  congests  after  the  period  of  probation,  and  on 
hnes  akin  to  those  illustrated  by  Kropotkin  in  his 
fascinating  book.  Fields,  Factories,  and  Workshops. 
Such   co-operative    farms    suggest    delightful   possi- 


286     THE   POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

bilities  in  the  west.  Lord  Castletown,  a  practical 
pioneer  of  co-operation  himself,  was  one  of  those  who 
were  attracted  by  the  idea.  Connacht  teachers, 
keenly  concerned  about  the  future  of  their  pupils, 
and  troubled  by  the  divorce  of  primary  education 
from  the  life-conditions  of  the  rural  communities, 
saw  happy  possibilities  in  such  farms.  So,  of  course, 
did  representatives  of  that  Irish  element  which  has 
no  faith  in  peasant  proprietorship.  But  it  is  all  a 
matter  of  the  future. 

The  Connemara  whose  conditions  and  problems  I 
have  sketched  very  briefly  has  given  us  two  of  our 
most  notable  modern  Irish  writers.  In  personality, 
outlook,  and  style  there  could  not  well  be  greater 
contrasts.  Padraic  O'Conaire,  who  hails  from  the 
Ptosmuc  district,  looks  more  keenly  and  grimly  at 
what  is  called  actual  life,  with  its  character  and 
apparent  irony,  than  any  other  Irish  writer,  old, 
mediaeval,  or  modern,  that  I  know.  In  the  sphere 
of  the  short  story  he  is,  as  a  rule,  unlike  any  Gaelic 
teller  of  tales  ;  there  is  no  imagination,  colour,  or 
romance  ;  just  the  ground-going,  essential,  relentless 
story,  presented  with  a  placid  detachment  which 
some  find  serene  and  others  cynical.  The  style  is 
direct,  restrained,  artistically  measured.  The  ground 
of  his  short  stories  is  varied :  bleak  Connemara, 
lower  London,  Judea  of  the  first  century  of  the 
Christian  Era,  China,  &c.  His  novel,  Deoraidheacht, 
published  in  1910,  is  a  study  at  stages  rather  than  a 
story,  a  study  in  large  measure  of  warped  and  dis- 
torted humanity,  of  special  Irish  interest  only  on 
occasions,  as  in  the  chapters  devoted  to  a  travelling 
show  in  Galway  and  to  an  Irish  colony  in  London. 


SMALL    HOLDINGS  287 

The  main  character,  who  tells  the  story,  has  been 
maimed  by  a  motor-car  in  London,  and  mental  and 
moral  as  well  as  the  physical  havoc  ensues.  The 
process  of  spending  the  money  received  by  way  of 
compensation  is  comparatively  rapid.  Then  comes 
a  pitiful  Hfe,  broken  by  wild,  strange  gleams,  with 
a  tragic  ending.  The  telHng  is  for  the  most  part 
intense  and  grim,  with  certain  pathetic  and  a  few 
fanciful  interludes,  with  bursts  of  wild  humour,  with 
flashlights  on  crime  and  misery  and  sordidness.  We 
see  a  warped  mind  in  a  nether  world,  yet  with  traits 
and  traces  of  pity,  charity,  wistfulness,  humour,  and 
poetry  surviving  through  hunger-crazes  and  morbid 
introspection.  While  the  framework  and  develop- 
ment are  not  always  entirely  satisfying,  a  great  deal 
in  the  tale  has  been  intensely  felt  and  seen.  There 
is  unsparing  revelation  of  distorted  character.  There 
is  also  a  share  of  lovable  character  in  an  unloving 
and  unlovely  environment.  Padraic  O'Conaire  is  also 
a  playwright,  though  but  one  short  play  from  his  pen 
has  so  far  been  produced — its  characters  and  atmo- 
sphere are  like  those  of  his  Connemara  stories — but 
he  is  the  author  of  one  of  the  long  prize  dramas  to 
be  rendered  at  the  Oireachtas  of  1912.  While  he 
knows  a  great  deal  of  Continental  literature,  especi- 
ally French,  we  feel  that  he  has  not  been  much 
affected,  at  least  directly,  by  other  authors.  He  has 
studied  and  brooded  over  hfe  for  himself.  The 
realist,  as  the  term  is  nowadays  imderstood,  has 
sheer  and  spacious  opportunities  in  Connemara  or 
nether  London,  both  of  which  Padraic  knows  inti- 
mately, no  less  than  in  Russia  or  Scandinavia. 

Michedl  Breathnach,  the  second  Connemara  writer, 


288     THE    POPE'S    GREEN    ISLAND 

is  unhappily  no  longer  with  us  in  the  flesh.  He  died 
in  Dublin  in  October  1908,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
eight.  His  was  not  quite  the  sort  of  individuality 
one  might  expect  from  a  lowly  home  in  Connemara, 
for  it  suggested  the  fine  flowering  of  a  long  and 
gracious  civihsation.  He  received  at  first  but  the 
ordinary  primary  school  education,  though  his  mind 
from  his  youth  was  stored  with  the  traditional  hero- 
tales  and  songs  of  his  native  west.  When  little  more 
than  twenty  he  was  appointed  assistant-secretary  and 
one  of  the  Irish  teachers  in  the  London  Gaehc  League, 
where  his  varied  gifts  and  rare  charm  of  character 
impressed  and  attracted  everybody.  The  cultured 
young  Irish  priest,  the  late  Father  Michael  Moloney, 
to  whom  I  referred  in  earlier  pages,  taught  him  Latin, 
while  he  subsequently  acquired  a  command  of  French 
and  a  fair  knowledge  of  German.  With  Irish,  his 
native  language,  he  played  like  an  accomplished, 
light-hearted  artist.  His  in  sooth  promised  to  be 
the  richest,  most  musical,  and  freshest  Irish  style  of 
our  day.  From  his  joyous,  idealistic  nature  and  his 
romantic  pictures  of  the  home  and  fireside  fife  one 
might  deem  Connemara  a  Tir  na  nOg.  Unhappily 
after  a  few  years  his  health  gave  way,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  spend  his  winters  in  the  Alps,  returning 
with  the  summer  to  take  charge  of  the  northern 
Connacht  Training  College  at  Mount  Partry  by  the 
waters  of  Loch  Mask.  There  the  handsome,  suave, 
high-hearted,  boyish-looking  Principal  was  idohsed  as 
much  as  he  had  been  in  London.  Foreign  students 
were  just  as  charmed  with  his  personality  and  his 
teaching  methods  as  the  Irish  ones.  Dr.  Pokorny, 
of  the  Vienna  University,  paid  him  a  glowing  tribute, 


SMALL    HOLDINGS  289 

while  a  French  visitor,  M.  Jean  Malye,  writing  in  the 
Peasant  in  September  1908,  said  : — 

"  The  real  soul  of  the  college  is  Michedl  Breathnach. 
I  do  not  know  anybody  more  attractive  than  Micheal. 
I  found  in  him  that  true,  exquisite  Gaelic  spirit — so 
kind,  so  agreeable,  so  enthusiastic,  and  also  so  de- 
cided and  so  strong.  His  is  the  kindness  that  flows 
from  a  high  and  generous  soul,  from  a  heart  full  of 
truth  and  goodness  ;  and  his  fine,  innate  qualities 
of  distinction  and  delicacy,  while  they  attract  affec- 
tion and  sympathy,  command  also  respect  and 
esteem.  ...  It  would  be  a  truism  to  say  that 
Michedl  is  a  wonderful  teacher.  For  my  own  part 
I  was  delighted  to  attend  some  of  his  lectures. 
People  who  are  really  wanting  in  intellectual  means 
make  progress  under  him,  so  clear  and  simple  he  is. 
He  knows  also  how  to  interest  those  who  are  already 
well  educated  ;  he  opens  up  new  horizons  to  them." 

Unfortunately  when  this  was  written  Michedl  was 
within  a  couple  of  months  of  his  early  death.  Fugi- 
tive sketches,  a  popular  History  of  Ireland,  and  an 
Irish  translation  of  Charles  Kickham's  homely  and 
touching  novel,  Knocknagow,  are  left  us — along  with 
sprightly  and  treasured  private  letters — to  show  us 
his  quality  and  suggest  what  he  might  have  achieved 
in  Irish  hterature.  We  who  knew  him,  however,  do 
not  take  the  work  as  a  thing  apart,  but  as  sparks  and 
flashes  from  the  finer  fire  which  was  himself.  No 
young  life  in  the  Ireland  of  our  generation  has  left 
more  affectionate  and  more  beautiful  memories.^ 
The  charm  and  magic  and  blithe  poise  of  his  per- 

1  An  Irish  biography  of  him,  by  Tomas  MacDomhnaill,  of  the  Leinster 
Irish  College,  with  numerous  letters  and  sketches,  is  in  the  press. 

T 


290     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

sonality  would  suggest,  the  fulness  and  the  flower  of 
long  evolution.  To  have  known  such  a  character  as 
he,  coming  from  a  remote  and  lowly  corner  of  Con- 
nacht,  may  well  inspire  us  with  optimism  regarding 
the  possibilities  and  the  future  of  the  race. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

THE   HERO   IN  THE  COLLEGE 

The  most  courageous  pioneer  in  the  realm  of  Irish 
education  is  a  young  man  of  thirty-two,  Padraic 
MacPiarais  (P.  H.  Pearse,  B.A.,  B.L.).  He  is  a 
scholar  with  a  child-spirit,  a  mystical  temperament, 
and  a  Celtic  nature,  in  the  heroic  and  constructive 
sense.  He  has  given  expression  in  some  of  his  Irish 
writing  to  naive  and  simple  behefs  and  dreams  of 
the  western  Catholic  peasantry.  At  the  same  time 
as  headmaster  of  the  most  remarkable  secondary 
college  in  Ireland  he  has  worked  consistently  to 
inspire  his  pupils  with  a  love  for  the  high  heroic 
ideals  of  Gaeldom.  He  would  have  them  manly  and 
spirited  Christians  first,  last,  and  all  the  time. 

Born  in  Dublin,  educated  partly  by  the  Jesuits,  an 
enthusiast  for  Irish  studies  from  his  youth,  at  seven- 
teen he  had  founded  an  Irish  literary  society,  at 
eighteen  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  executive 
of  the  Gaelic  League,  then  in  an  early  and  obscure 
stage  of  its  career :  to  outer  seeming  just  another 
society  that  met  in  a  back-room.  Two  years  later 
he  began  his  explorations  in  West  Connacht,  drawn 
to  its  traditional  lore  and  character,  which  as  the 
years  passed  proved  ever  more  fascinating  to  him. 
He  has  cycled  or  tramped  through  practically  every 
Irish-speaking  district  in  Ireland,  but  Connemara 
remains  his  favourite  haunt.     He  is  one  of  the  most 


292     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

significant  examples  of  a  type  with  which  the  Gaehc 
League  has  made  us  fairly  familiar — the  educated 
man  who  goes  down  to  the  haunts  of  the  unspoiled 
people  and  imbibes  their  lore  and  traditions  to  his 
heart's  content.  His  favourite  resting-place  and 
rallying  gromid  is  the  cottage  we  have  noted  at 
Costello  in  remote  West  Connacht,  and  most  of  his 
Irish  stories  and  sketches  are  related  to  that  region. 

His  metier  in  the  Gaehc  League  has  been  the  study 
of  education  in  all  its  branches.  He  has  pursued 
his  studies  not  only  throughout  Ireland  but  in  Wales, 
France,  Belgium,  &c.,  abroad.  An  enthusiast  for  the 
Irishising  of  education,  his  programme,  attractively 
expoimded  in  the  Gaehc  League  weekly,  which  he 
edited  for  some  years,  was  bi-hnguahsm  :  the  verna- 
cular of  the  district  as  "  first  language  '"'  and  from 
the  earhest  possible  stage  an  obhgatory  "  second  lan- 
guage," with  all  teacliing  on  the  Modli  Direach,  or 
Direct  Method,  which  the  Gaehc  League  made  popular 
here  and  there  in  Ireland.  After  long  exposition  of 
his  theories — seeming  to  the  multitude  just  as  "  prac- 
tical ''  as  apostles  usually  are — in  the  early  simimer 
of  1908  he  made  a  bold  move  towards  the  reahsation 
of  his  ideal  in  his  own  way.  With  himself  as  head- 
master, and  an  expert  staff  of  professors  and  extern 
lecturers,  he  established  Sgoil  Eanna,  or  St.  Enda's 
College,  in  a  pleasant  quarter  of  Rathmines,  Dubhn. 
This  secondary  estabhshment  for  boys — day  students 
and  boarders — set  itself  to  be  distinctively  Irish  and 
modern  in  its  ideals  and  methods.  The  scheme  when 
first  pubhshed  seemed  to  many  a  sort  of  fairy  tale,  a 
dream  of  what  Irish  education  ought  to  be.  A  ^vide 
and  generous  culture  was  proposed,  but  the  forma- 


THE  HERO   IN  THE  COLLEGE     293 

tion  of  character,  the  enkindhng  of  imagination,  the 
creation  of  interest  in  Ireland  and  in  life  were  to  be 
kept  steadily  and  systematically  in  view.  In  the 
general  curriculmn  the  first  place  was  accorded  to 
Irish.  All  modern  language  teaching  was  to  be  on 
the  Direct  Method,  all  teaching  other  than  language 
teaching  to  be  bi-lingual ;  thus  mathematics,  physics, 
philosophy,  or  literature,  as  the  case  might  be,  would 
be  taught  through  the  medium  of  Irish  as  well  as 
EngUsh.  The  earhest  instruction  of  the  younger  boys 
was  to  be  purely  oral.  An  idea  of  the  general  order 
and  ideal  was  shown  in  the  announcement  that  they 
would  be  led  up  to  the  formal  study  of  literature  by 
an  attractive  course  of  hero  and  fairy  tales  and  simple 
poetry,  and  that  their  introduction  to  physical  science 
would  be  by  means  of  object  lessons  conducted  in  the 
school  gardens  or  in  the  course  of  country  walks. 
The  study  of  history,  Irish  history  especially,  was  to 
form  a  special  part  of  the  curriculum,  the  legends, 
literature,  and  story  of  Ireland  to  be  treated  of  in 
close  association  with  the  geography  and  physical 
features  of  the  land.  In  this  connection  were  planned 
half-holiday  lectures,  with  lantern  illustrations,  alter- 
nating with  excursions  to  places  of  scenic,  historic, 
and  antiquarian  interest.  Nature  study  on  living 
and  picturesque  hues  was  mapped  out.  In  the 
summer  months  as  much  as  possible  of  the  teaching 
would  be  done  in  the  open  air,  and  in  connection  with 
the  institution  a  summer  hoHday  school  in  a  purely 
Irish-speaking  district  was  proposed.  But  'twere 
long  to  tell  of  the  novelties  and  attractions  set  down, 
including  some  in  the  organisation  of  the  college 
itself.     The  boldness  and  breadth  of  the  proposal 


294     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

astonished  even  friends  and  sympathisers.  They 
knew  it  was  the  project  of  a  cultured  man  who  had 
noble  educational  ideals  and  the  bright  human  sense 
and  zest  which  must  underlie  and  colour  all  true 
education.  But  this  was  Ireland,  where  most  educa- 
tion for  the  greater  part  of  a  century  had  been  un- 
Irish,  and  where  dreams  were  understood  to  be  slow 
to  come  true.     This  new  one  was  not  long  a  dream. 

Sundry  parents  were  practical  and  sent  their  boys 
forthwith  to  the  new  institution.  Many  were  youths 
of  very  considerable  character.  All  the  provinces 
were  represented.  From  the  outset,  as  might  be 
expected,  St.  Enda's  had  a  flavour  and  atmosphere 
all  its  own.  Mr.  Pearse  was  happy  in  his  assistants, 
and  indeed  in  his  pupils,  and  though  his  labours  and 
anxieties  were  great — he  continued  for  some  time,  by 
the  way,  to  act  as  editor  of  the  Gaelic  League  weekly 
— he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  dream  come 
true.  To  every  visitor  interested  in  Irish  education 
the  scheme  of  things  at  St.  Enda's  was  a  joyous  sur- 
prise ;  and  the  Irish  title,  "  Sgoil  Eanna,"  soon  be- 
came something  of  a  watchword,  a  symbol,  a  national 
achievement,  a  culture-ideal  in  manifestation  and 
realisation.  The  special  gatherings — as  on  the  occa- 
sions of  Irish  plays  and  pageants — to  which  the 
public  was  invited  were  as  bracing  and  heartening 
as  the  Gaelic  festivals.  One  found  many  things  to 
suggest  that  young  folk,  taught  and  trained  as 
they  were  day  in  day  out  at  Sgoil  Eanna,  would 
in  due  course  hold  their  heads  high  and  speak 
their  minds  bravely  and  mould  many  things  to  their 
will. 

Mr.  Pearse  himself  says  that  there  is  nothing  new 


THE  HERO  IN  THE  COLLEGE     295 

in  his  philosophy  of  education ;  it  was  practised  by 
the  founders  of  the  Gaelic  system  two  thousand  years 
ago.  Their  very  names  for  "  education "  and 
"  teacher "'  and  "  pupil "  show,  as  he  tells  us,  that 
they  had  gripped  the  heart  of  the  problem.  The 
word  for  "  education  "  among  the  old  Gael  was  the 
same  as  for  "  fostering  "  ;  the  teacher  was  a  "  fos- 
terer,"' and  the  pupil  was  a  "  foster-child.'"  The  true 
aim  of  the  teacher  is  to  enable  the  child  to  reahse 
himself  at  his  best  and  worthiest.  He  will  recognise 
in  each  of  his  pupils  an  individual  human  soul,  dis- 
tinct and  different  from  every  other  human  soul, 
miles  and  miles  apart  from  the  soul  that  is  nearest 
and  most  akin  to  it,  craving  indeed  comradeship  and 
sympathy,  needing  discipline  and  guidance,  but  im- 
periously demanding  to  be  allowed  to  live  its  own 
life,  to  be  allowed  to  bring  itself  to  its  own  perfection. 
Mr.  Pearse  maintains  further  that  the  old  Irish 
plan  of  education,  as  idealised  for  boys  in  the  story 
of  the  Macradh  of  Eamhain  and  for  girls  in  that  of 
the  Grianan  of  Lusga,  was  the  wisest  and  most  gener- 
ous that  the  world  has  ever  known.  The  bringing 
together  in  some  pleasant  place  under  the  fosterage 
of  some  man  famous  among  his  people  for  his  great- 
ness of  heart,  for  his  wisdom,  for  his  skill  in  some 
gracious  craft — here  we  get  the  two  things  on  which 
he  lays  most  stress  in  education  :  the  environment, 
and  the  stimulus  of  an  individuality  which  can  ad- 
dress itself  to  the  child's  worthiest  self.  Much  in  the 
whole  order  of  Sgoil  Eanna,  in  class-room  and  playing- 
field,  in  lecture  and  pageant,  seems  a  vital  modern 
rendering  of  the  culture-scheme  of  the  sunny  and  ever- 
youthful  saga  ;    and  Mr.  Pearse  would  ask  nothing 


296     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

better  than  to  say  with  the  Irish  hero  :  "I  was  a 
child  with  children,  I  was  a  man  with  men/' 

The  scheme  proved  so  much  of  a  success  that  in 
1910  wide  developments  were  imperative,  and  in  the 
early  autumn  of  that  year  Mr.  Pearse  boldly  took 
over  an  historic  mansion  and  demesne  of  fifty  acres, 
at  Rathfarnham,  as  the  new  haunt  for  St.  Enda's, 
while  the  old  one  was  devoted  to  a  new  secondary 
college,  with  kindred  Irish  ideals,  for  girls  (Sgoil  Ide, 
or  St.  Ita's).  The  new  St.  Enda's  commands  a  pros- 
pect of  alluring  beauty,  with  the  setting  of  the  Dublin 
mountains,  storied  Beann  Eadair  (or  Howth)  and  the 
Bay.  To  find  the  Gael  teaching  in  such  a  haunt  at 
the  gates  of  Dublin  brings  the  feeling  that  the  "  lean 
years  "  are  ending,  and  that "  Kathleen  Ni  Houlahan  " 
is  getting  back  bright  corners  of  her  "  four  beautiful 
green  fields."  By  the  beginning  of  the  first  session 
in  Rathfarnham  the  fame  of  St.  Enda's  had  travelled 
far,  and  even  Irish- America  was  represented  amongst 
the  new  boarders.  Outside  the  scholastic  sphere  the 
most  notable  outcome  of  the  College  since  then  has 
been  a  Passion  Play  in  Irish.  Mr.  Pearse  himself 
arranged  and  .composed  it,  and  the  main  parts  were 
taken  by  teachers  and  pupils  of  the  institution  when 
it  was  first  presented,  with  great  solemnity  and 
beauty,  in  the  Abbey  Theatre  at  Easter,  1911. 

Gaelic  and  Celtic  studies  and  enthusiasms  in  this 
twentieth  century  have  modified  the  inlook  and 
outlook  of  various  Irish  CathoHcs,  as  I  point  out 
elsewhere.  Mr.  Pearse  has  apparently  remained 
unaffected.  Animated  by  the  spacious  and  heroic 
pre-Christian  sagas  and  ideals,  he  is  able  to  sym- 
pathise  keenly   at   the   same   time   with   the   naive 


THE  HERO  IN  THE  COLLEGE     297 

beliefs  and  the  humble  explanation  of  the  universe 
that  prevail  amongst  the  western  peasantry.  It 
might  even  appear  from  some  of  his  utterances  that 
for  the  deepest  spiritual  life  and  belief  he  thinks  we 
must  go  to  lar-Chonnacht.  Certain  of  his  stories  are 
very  expressive  of  the  folk  feeling  and  attitude.  The 
most  noted  instance  is  that  of  "  losagdn ""  (the  Child 
Jesus),  which  he  has  also  made  the  subject  of  a  deli-  ,M 
cate  mystery-play.  The  denouement  is  significantly"  ^■- 
theological.  losagdn  has  moved  amongst  playing 
children  and  talked  with  an  old  man  who  for  many 
years  has  refused  to  enter  a  church. 

In  the  last  scene  the  old  man,  awed  and  repentant, 
is  dying  alone  and  remote.  No  human  being  knows 
his  plight,  that  he  is  passing  away  without  the 
ministering  priest  and  without  confession.  "  Bas  gan 
sagart,"  death  without  a  priest,  is  a  crowning  terror 
to  the  Catholic  Gael.  In  this  instance  losagdn  goes 
away  and  brings  a  priest  at  the  crucial  hour,  and  the 
penitent  dies  happily.  Thus  the  World-Saviour — 
manifested  in  time  and  place  in  a  child's  form — 
sets  Himself  secondary  to  the  minister  and  inter- 
mediary. Here  truly  is  a  naive  but  significant  reve- 
lation of  a  popular  theological  attitude. 

Speaking  of  Hterature,  we  may  note  that  St.  Enda's 
has  several  intellectual  interests,  including  one  unique 
type  of  author.  In  the  mind's  eye  of  every  one  who 
knows  much  of  Gaelic  Ireland,  Mr.  Pearse's  chief 
gardener,  Michedl  Mag  Ruairi,  is  a  very  vivid  and 
racy  personage.  He  overflows  with  character.  He 
also  overflows  with  North  Connacht  story  and  tradi- 
tion, and  the  Irish  he  speaks  is  particularly  idiomatic 
and  copious.     Owing  to  eye  trouble  his  literary  edu- 


298     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

cation  had  to  be  circumscribed,  and  the  art  of  writing 
is  not  his.  But  he  has  dictated  several  stories  and 
dialogues — always  a  popular  Gaelic  art-form — which 
make  lively  reading,  also  one  elaborate  book,  dealing 
with  the  career  of  Hugh  O'Neill,  the  sixteenth-century 
Ulster  leader.  While  some  of  the  matter  is  only 
popular  tradition,  and  while  the  style  on  occasion  is 
colloquial,  at  other  times  rhetorical,  much  of  the 
volume  is  very  spirited  and  some  of  it  graphic. 
Nobody  who  takes  grave  and  formal  views  of  life 
and  literature  would  understand  Mag  Ruairi's  place 
in  Ireland.  There  is  a  flavour  of  wild  earth  and 
antique  saga  about  him. 

I  have  dwelt  in  some  little  detail  on  Sgoil  Eanna, 
for  in  its  own  order  it  is  our  most  significant  success 
so  far,  something  bravely  planned  and  fashioned, 
an  institution  whose  influence  goes  far  afield.  "  Each 
age  is  a  dream  that  is  dying,  or  one  that  is  coming  to 
birth,"  sang  Arthur  O'Shaughnessy  in  ' '  The  Music- 
makers  " ;  and  one  of  the  great  dreams  of  the  new 
generation  in  Ireland  is  to  make  education  noble  and 
natural,  fitted  to  the  wants  and  ends  and  attuned  to 
the  finer  spirit  of  the  land  in  which  the  students 
ought  to  live,  and  could  live  if  all  our  Untilled  Fields 
were  tilled.  But  what  the  battle  for  the  Irishising 
and  humanising  of  education  means  in  contemporary 
Irish  circumstances  nobody  accustomed  to  a  natural 
educational  order  can  imagine.  St.  Enda's  may  strike 
the  non-Irish  reader  as  interesting  in  its  spirit,  high 
in  its  ideal,  but  normal  in  its  procedure.  In  Ireland 
it  is  revolutionary.  And  its  headmaster  is  one  of 
those  whom  Arthur  O'Shaughnessy  called  the  "  Music- 
makers." 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

IRELAND   AT  THE   PLAY 

Plays  and  players  and  playing  have  added  some- 
thing to  the  stress  and  gaiety  of  our  lives,  not  only 
in  Dublin,  Cork,  and  Belfast,  but  in  country  towns 
and  parishes,  since  the  nineties  of  the  last  century. 
Some  of  the  plays  have  been  successfully  reproduced 
before  Irish  audiences  in  New  York  and  London. 
The  plays  have  been  Irish  plays,  bi-lingual  plays, 
and  plays  on  Irish  themes  in  English.  I  suppose 
the  thought  of  bi-lingual  plays  is  enough  to  make 
the  blood  of  a  dramatic  critic  run  cold  ;  still  we 
have  got  a  good  deal  of  fun,  and  a  little  instruction, 
out  of  them  in  Ireland.  In  the  later  and  present 
circumstances  of  the  country  it  is  easy  to  imagine 
dramatic  situations  in  which  Irish  would  be  natural 
or  preferable  to  some,  and  English  natural  or  pre- 
ferable to  others,  with  consequent  complications  and 
comedy.  We  have  had  several  illustrations  of  this 
on  the  stage,  and  enjoyed  them. 

The  Irish  plays,  ranging  from  simple  comic  sketches 
to  five-act  tragedies,  have  taken  us  anywhere  from  a 
cabin  to  fairyland.  It  added  to  the  zest  of  life  if  one 
had  first  to  write  the  play,  then  conduct  the  re- 
hearsals, lend  a  hand  in  the  business  of  stage  car- 
pentry, and  take  the  part  of  a  poet  or  a  landlord  in 
the  public  performance.  In  the  early  days  it  did  not 
greatly  matter  whether  the  Irish  or  bi-Ungual  play 

289 


300     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

was  good  or  bad,  from  the  artistic  point  of  view. 
So  long  as  it  liad  fair  speaking  parts,  some  fairly- 
intelligible  sequence,  a  dance  or  a  piper  in  the  middle, 
and  a  strong  climax,  it  went  with  eclat.  A  devoted 
story-teller,  the  older  Gael,  so  far  as  we  are  aware, 
developed  no  drama,  and  the  Gael  or  would-be  Gael 
of  our  day  was  not  bound  by  tradition  or  conven- 
tion ;  he  had,  for  a  few  years,  a  wonderfully  open 
mind  as  to  how  Irish  drama  ought  to  go.  In  fact, 
it  might  go  anyhow,  he  was  ready  to  applaud  a  pass- 
able experiment  or  a  lop-sided  experiment.  He  ac- 
cepted oratory,  disputation,  singing,  dancing,  feats  of 
agility,  love-making,  sheep-steahng,  with  equal  anima- 
tion. Canon  O'Leary  himself  wrote  a  play  about 
sheep-stealing,  making,  if  I  remember  rightly,  rather 
a  hero  of  the  sheep-stealer  ;  what  I  distinctly  re- 
member is  that  a  sheep  was  brought  on  the  stage. 
When  this  play  was  given  in  the  country  the  diffi- 
culty was  not  to  fill  the  biggest  building  available, 
but  to  mollify  the  overflow  gathering  that  could  not 
get  inside. 

Very  often  it  was  just  as  interesting  to  watch  the 
faces  and  the  behaviour  of  the  audiences  at  Irish 
plays  as  to  follow  the  performers  themselves.  In 
fact,  the  audience  might  be  said  to  take  part  in  the 
performance.  Sometimes  the  incidental  humours 
were  diverting.  Once  at  the  Oireachtas  we  had  an 
Irish  historical  play  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hayes — a  DubUn 
school  teacher  well  known  as  an  Irish  writer — in 
which  the  hero  in  a  crisis  passed  over  to  the  con- 
tinent and  joined  the  Irish  Brigade.  At  a  dramatic 
pass  the  thunder  of  the  Battle  of  Fontenoy  in  the 
background  was  listened  to  with  tense  interest.     The 


IRELAND   AT   THE   PLAY         301 

moment  it  ceased  there  came  a  roar  of  "Aris  !  Aris  !  " 
(Encore  !  Encore  !)  from  the  most  democratic  quarter 
of  the  Rotmida.  The  demand  of  the  enthusiasts  who 
wanted  the  Battle  of  Fontenoy  over  again  "  brought 
down  the  house,"  but  changed  drama  to  comedy  for 
the  moment. 

It  was  also  at  the  rendering  of  a  play  by  Mr.  Hayes 
that  the  actor  who  played  the  hero  turned  what  ought 
to  have  been  the  most  tender  scene  into  pure  comedy, 
or  rather  while  he  was  sadly  serious  the  audience 
caught  the  comedy.  The  hero  in  a  tragic  hour  had 
to  fly  from  Ireland,  and  the  parting  with  the  beloved 
heroine  took  place  on  the  grey  rocks  by  the  tossing 
sea.  It  was  a  hurried  scene,  for  his  track  was 
shadowed  by  danger.  When  he  had  told  her  the 
worst  and  vowed  eternal  fealty,  and  the  moment 
came  for  flight,  he  did  not  take  her  to  his  breast,  or 
kiss  her,  or  even  clasp  her  hand.  He  simply  raised 
his  hat  and  bowed  with  a  splendid  politeness  !  The 
hilarity  of  the  audience  must  have  been  embarrassing. 

Maynooth  itself  has  had  its  gaieties  over  plays, 
written  and  rendered  by  students ;  on  the  perform- 
ance of  a  humorous  bi-lingual  one  in  1910  the  bishops 
and  D.D.'s  who  were  present  forgot  ecclesiastical 
dignity  altogether  and  laughed  hke  children.  May- 
nooth students  have  also  successfully  staged  an  am- 
bitious Irish  historical  play  by  one  of  themselves,  a 
play  which  was  afterwards  welcomed  in  Cork,  rendered 
on  that  occasion  of  course  by  local  performers.  In 
Maynooth,  as  in  great  periods  of  the  drama  in  other 
lands,  the  feminine  characters,  as  may  be  expected, 
are  all  personated  by  students. 

After  a  few  years  of  tentative  effort,  Irish  audi- 


302     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

ences,  like  Irish  writers  themselves,  began  to  grow 
more  critical  both  of  plays  and  performers.  The 
plays  on  the  whole  improved  more  quickly  than  the 
actors,  but  then  there  was  no  regular  Gaelic  stage 
to  train  them.  It  was  not  till  1910  that  the  Gaelic 
League  established  a  regular  Dramatic  Company. 
Belfast  Gaels  formed  another  the  same  year.  Local 
centres  like  Tawin  and  Bealach  a  Doirin  had  their 
troupes  earlier.  These  were  brought  to  Dublin, 
where  they  pleased  everybody  by  their  naturalness, 
and  they  did  enlivening  work  in  country  towns  and 
districts.  The  Tawin  troupe  was  trained  by  an  irre- 
pressible young  man,  Dr.  Seumas  O'Beirne,  himself 
a  native  of  this  remote  Galway  village.  He  also 
wrote  for  them  a  humorous  play,  An  Dochtuir,  which 
they  rendered  at  home  and  far  from  home  with  a 
Uvely  sense  of  comedy.  The  Doctor,  the  play,  and 
the  players,  and  various  struggles  with  local  princi- 
paUties  and  powers,  made  the  name  of  the  little 
Galway  village  famous  in  Ireland  and  America. 
These  local  players  have  been  a  happy  sign  of  the 
histrionic  talent  we  may  expect  even  in  rural  Ireland 
as  our  world  brightens. 

The  main  opportunities  for  Gaelic  acting  have  been 
at  the  Oireachtas,  the  Feiseanna,  and  special  gatherings 
of  Gaelic  League  branches,  but  these  opportunities 
being  only  periodical  could  do  no  more  than  prepare 
the  way  for  a  regular  stage.  At  St.  Enda's  College, 
Dubhn,  we  have  seen  highly  promising  acting  by  the 
students,  in  plays  in  Irish  and  in  English,  but  in 
Mr.  Thomas  MacDonagh,  the  poet,  and  one  of  the 
professors,  they  have  an  admirable  instructor.  They 
have  also  had  plays  with  dramatic  life  and  opportu- 


IRELAND   AT   THE   PLAY         303 

nity.  By  the  way,  nearly  all  the  Irish  writers  men- 
tioned in  one  connection  or  another  in  this  book,  as 
well  as  a  few  others,  have  written  plays,  long  or  short, 
practically  all  of  which  have  been  acted,  and  also 
published  in  book-form.  They  may  be  roughly 
divided  into  pastoral  or  rural,  romantic,  and  his- 
torical, the  latter  being  the  most  ambitious,  but 
not  always  the  most  effective. 

Plays  by  Mr.  Yeats,  Padraic  Colum,  Synge,  and 
Lady  Gregory  have  been  translated  into  Irish  ;  plays 
of  Moli^re  and  a  few  shorter  French  plays  have  also 
been  translated  into  Irish  by  Miss  Sheehy,  Liam 
O'Domhnaill,  and  Eamon  O'Neill.  A  few  have  fared 
well  on  the  stage,  but  on  the  whole  the  original  Irish 
plays  fare  best.  Of  course,  Irish  drama  is  still  rather 
tentative  and  experimental — that  is  part  of  the  charm 
— but  writers  and  critics  are  gradually  coming  to  it 
with  more  artistic  seriousness  than  was  the  case  in 
the  early  years.  The  grave  historian  and  critic  of 
the  future  can  have  little  understanding  of  the  value, 
in  their  own  day,  of  most  of  the  earlier,  even  the 
haphazard,  plays,  the  profit  and  amusement  we  have 
derived  from  a  number  of  them.  They  are  bits  of 
Ufe  and  memory. 

Of  all  Irish  theatrical  bodies  that  I  have  seen  none 
is  more  modest  or  more  delightful  in  its  own  way 
than  the  Ulster  Literary  Theatre,  Belfast.  The  real 
names  of  its  playwrights  and  players  are  never  given 
to  the  public ;  they  write  and  act  for  art's  sake,  and 
their  art  is  fresh  and  attractive.  Their  revelation  of 
rural  Ulster  life,  as  in  "  Eutherford  Mayne's  "  play, 
The  Drone,  and  others,  makes  it  a  part  of  one's  own 
life  ever  after.      They  have  a  sly  sense  of  humour 


304     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

too.  In  one  of  their  Dublin  terms,  for  which  they 
engaged  the  Abbey  Theatre,  they  produced  a  new 
play  called  The  Mist  that  does  he  on  the  Bog.  It 
parodied  noted  Abbey  writers  in  buoyant  style,  while 
the  actors  mimicked  leading  Abbey  performers  in 
similar  degree.  Dubliners  paid  due  tribute  to  the 
joyous  audacity. 

The  Theatre  of  Ireland, the  National  Players, and  the 
Leinster  Stage  Society  have  given  various  periodical 
performances,  the  former  staging  appreciable  work  by 
Seumas  0 'Kelly,  the  editor  of  the  Leinster  Leader.  It 
displayed  a  considerable  knowledge  of  Irish  rural  feel- 
ing and  character,  the  comedy  especially,  and  in 
structure  it  was  generally  straightforward  and  work- 
manUke.  This  society  also  revived  plays  by  Mr. 
Edward  Martyn  and  "  A.  E." 

In  those  years  the  Abbey  Theatre,  Dublin's  one 
regular  dramatic  institution  of  decided  Irish  interest, 
was  sometimes  unpopular,  sometimes  patronised  in 
a  modest  way,  sometimes  fairly  popular.  It  gene- 
rally received  much  less,  once  in  a  while  rather  more, 
than  its  due.  After  the  trouble  over  the  Play-Boy 
at  the  beginning  of  1907  it  had  a  bleak  term,  and 
for  a  couple  of  years  produced  little  that  was  new, 
contenting  itself  mainly  with  earher  plays  of  Mr. 
Yeats,  Lady  Gregory,  and  the  late  Mr.  J.  M.  Synge, 
till  their  most  devoted  admirers  must  have  grown 
somewhat  restive.  Then  came  a  more  productive 
and  also  more  progressive  period,  with  the  re-entry 
of  Mr.  William  Boyle's  rather  mordantly  humorous 
plays,  and  new  work  by  Padraic  Colum  and  other 
writers  known  and  unknown.  While  we  devoted  a 
great  deal  of  attention  to  the  Abbey  and  its  work 


IRELAND   AT   THE   PLAY         305 

in  the  Irish  Nation,  I  was  not  one  of  those  to  whom 
it  represented  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  art  and 
hterature  in  Ireland  ;  it  was  one  of  several  new 
interests,  and  it  seemed  to  me  at  times  to  be  more 
restricted  and  less  promising  than  some  others ;  it 
certainly  had  not  their  colour  and  character.  There 
was  a  sense  of  posing  or  strain  about  a  few  of  its 
writers  on  occasion,  what  they  took  for  reality  was 
only  a  fraction  of  reality,  and  they  harped  on  peasant 
Ireland,  seen  at  a  peculiar  angle,  almost  to  tedium. 
Of  course,  building  on  or  with  the  natural  peasantry, 
so  far  as  they  are  natural,  is  a  very  appealing  thing, 
but  Abbey  writers,  Hke  certain  Gaehc  Leaguers,  and 
more,  seemed  often  to  forget  that  other  people  be- 
sides the  particular  peasantry  they  saw  had  memories, 
traditions,  and  souls,  and  hence  ideals  and  ordeals. 

The  Abbey  was  not  Hked  by  snobbish  and  super- 
ficial people,  who  despised  the  life  it  interpreted,  often 
(but  by  no  means  always)  with  simple  sincerity  and 
beauty  ;  but  it  was  also  something  of  a  trial  to  85^11- 
pathisers  and  supporters  who  thought  that  its  range 
was  too  narrow  and  apt  to  become  monotonous.  Dr. 
Sigerson,  most  heroic  and  picturesque  of  modern  Irish 
philosophers  and  individualities,  has  said  pertinently 
that  the  heroic  fibre,  which  the  nation  has  always 
possessed,  is  curiously  lacking  in  Abbey  drama  ;  that 
sometimes,  in  pieces  of  high  promise,  the  grotesque, 
which  might  serve  in  the  background,  usurps  the 
foreground,  an  artistic  mistake  as  great  as  though  an 
architect  had  allowed  gargoyles  to  occupy  the  place& 
of  saints  and  kings.  Dr.  Sigerson's  judgment  of  the 
Abbey  presentation  of  the  peasant  is  somewhat  severe, 
but  it  contains  a  large  share  of  truth.     He  says  that 

u 


306     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

a  new  type  has  been  created,  but  it  is  not  a  synthetic 
painting,  rather  an  individual  exception,  presented 
in  different  hghts  and  shades  and  all  undesirable  ; 
the  new  Irish  stage  peasant  is  sordid  or  silly  or  both, 
mean  in  his  manner,  mercenary  in  his  marriage, 
materialistic  in  his  outlook  on  hfe ;  he  is  but  the 
squalid  skeleton  of  a  man  whom  none  would  care  to 
know  except,  perhaps,  an  anatomist. 

The  unequal  genius  of  Synge,  sometimes  opulent, 
sometimes  lean,  bizarre,  or  morbid,  brought  a  dis- 
tracting measure  of  stimulation  and  dissatisfaction. 
The  war  over  the  Play-Boy  has  doubtless  been  over- 
done in  Ireland  and  in  Irish- America,  just  as  the 
battle  over  Hernani  in  Paris,  and  that  over  Ibsen  in 
London  and  elsewhere  were  overdone.  I  have  only 
seen  that  curiosity  of  art  when  played  as  pure  farce. 
As  farce  it  passed  muster  gaily  enough.  Reading  it 
calmly  it  seemed  that  it  would  also  serve  as  romantic 
comedy,  but  that  it  contained  great  pieces  and  pas- 
sages which  would  fit  finely  into  a  far  higher  kind  of 
play  than  it  is  on  the  whole.  Those  non-Irish  critics 
who  see  in  it  a  "  beautiful  love-story  "'  and  an  "  idyll  " 
I  cannot  understand  ;  the  love  element,  such  as  it  is, 
seems  to  be  utterly  lacking  in  sincerity.  Advanced 
as  interpretation  of  Irish  life  and  feehng,  the  main 
matter  is  simply  preposterous.  The  Play-Boy  might 
have  been  written  by  a  rather  mordant  genius  who, 
after  he  had  suffered  much  physical  and  mental  pain, 
took  drink  enough  to  bring  him  at  once  a  relief  from 
his  suffering  and  a  certain  psychic  intoxication. 
Deirdre  and  the  mournful  and  sombre  Riders  to  the 
Sea  apart,  Synge  fared  best  with  beggars  and  tinkers. 
In  his  plays  they  are  often  like  folk  who  have  fallen 


IRELAND   AT   THE   PLAY         307 

from  a  great  saga-life,  but  retain  much  of  the  imagery 
and  poetry  they  had  before  the  fall.  AppeaHngly 
fresh  as  is  Synge's  phraseology  so  often,  it  has  a  ripe 
old  flavour  to  Irish  readers  or  Hsteners ;  it  is  some- 
times like  literally  translated  Irish.  His  work,  I 
think,  will  live  longer  as  literature  than  as  acting 
drama. 

The  Abbey  Theatre  is  most  interesting  when  one 
can  drop  into  it  and  put  away  all  dramatic  issues  of 
the  past,  present,  and  future ;  just  taking  its  scenes 
and  natural  actors  as  a  part  of  life,  no  very  difficult 
feat  of  imagination  at  times  ;  forgetting  for  the  hour 
all  the  fine,  challenging  things  Mr.  Yeats  has  said 
about  peasants,  personality,  art,  the  tyranny  of  mere 
*'  opinions,''  and  other  matters,  and  feeling  at  home 
with  life.  That  cannot  always  be  ;  but  to  say  that 
it  often  can  be  is  surely  to  pay  a  high  tribute  to  the 
Abbey. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

JOAN   OF   ARC   AND  IRELAND 

In  days  of  ardour  and  incidental  battling  with  bishops, 
Joan  of  Arc  proved  an  inspiration,  a  challenge,  a  dis- 
traction, a  source  of  alarm.  From  time  to  time 
earnest  Protestant  friends  took  exactly  the  attitude 
that  many  Protestants  outside  Ireland  would  expect 
them  not  to  take.  From  the  apparently  inevitable 
attitude  they  shrank.  The  ceremony  of  the  beati- 
fication of  La  Pucelle  at  Rome  impelled  our  pro- 
Catholic  daily  papers  to  elaborate  leading  articles  in 
which  the  salient  interests  of  the  story  were  entirely 
ignored.  As  the  Irish  Nation  said  at  the  time,  our 
daily  pressmen  had  not  yet  the  courage,  even  when 
they  had  the  knowledge,  to  set  forth  the  truth  and 
point  the  moral  of  a  development  of  this  character, 
with  its  dramatic  justice  and  irony.  Our  Churchmen 
themselves,  we  added,  would  be  chary  and  timid 
about  treating  the  question  deeply ;  they  would  be- 
tray no  desire  to  emulate  the  serene  courage  and 
boldness  of  Rome.  Yet,  we  insisted,  the  frank  facing 
of  the  story  of  Joan  of  Arc  and  the  candid  acceptance 
of  its  lessons  would  do  all  Ireland  good,  though  in  the 
first  instance  it  might  stagger  some  and  chasten  more. 
While  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  so  shamefully  and  bar- 
barously treated  in  her  day,  had  profoundly  attracted 
and  exercised  the  world's  mind  ever  since,  and  had 
been  the  theme  of  many  "  explanations  "  which  left 


JOAN    OF   ARC   AND    IRELAND     309 

her  real  force  and  fascination  unexplained,  there  were 
certain  lessons  in  her  drama  which  he  who  ran  might 
read.  One  of  the  first  strange  facts,  which  well 
might  set  Ireland  thinking,  and  trying  to  re-adjust 
its  notions,  was  that  she  was  one  of  the  greatest  of 
"  anti-clerics."  Episcopal  enmity  and  persistence 
(though  the  fact  might  not  be  known  in  Ireland) 
were  largely  responsible  for  her  sale  by  the  Burgun- 
dians  to  the  English,  who  delivered  her  over  to  the 
Inquisition  for  trial,  and  the  rack  of  an  ordeal  which 
most  Christian-minded  moderns  would  like  to  be  able 
to  blot  out  from  the  memory  of  history.  Her  con- 
demnation as  a  heretic  and  a  sorceress,  her  burning 
in  the  streets  of  Rouen,  all  the  terrible  features  of  her 
story,  might  well  cause  Churchmen  to  feel  chastened 
and  sorrowful  after  five  long  centuries. 

The  Roman  ceremony  of  our  own  day  was  inciden- 
tally a  crushing  condemnation  of  Joan's  ecclesiastical 
critics  and  accusers,  a  striking  reminder  of  the  falli- 
bihty  of  Churchmen  when  they  departed  from  the 
spirit  and  teaching  of  their  Master  and  substituted  a 
theology  of  repression  and  terror  for  the  vita  nova  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  That  the  martyred 
"  heretic  ''  and  "  sorceress  "  of  the  fifteenth  century 
was  found  worthy  of  beatification  in  the  twentieth, 
when  passion  and  rash  judgment  were  long  passed 
away,  conveyed  a  lesson  to  be  remembered  when 
Churchmen  left  their  sacred  sphere  to  thunder  or  plot 
against  nation-builders — Joan  of  Arc  was  one  of  the 
greatest  and  subtlest  nation-builders  in  history. 
Rome  in  upholding  the  reaUty  of  her  inspiration 
acknowledged  the  divinity  of  the  national  spirit  which 
she  typified  in  so  wondrous  a  way.     Rome  beatified 


310     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

the  greatest  heroine  of  national  freedom  in  the  known 
story  of  the  race.  This  raised  considerations  on 
which  certain  of  our  prelates  might  ponder  with 
advantage  to  themselves  and  the  nation. 

Conservative  clerics  thought  these  sentiments 
strained  or  insidious  or  an  excuse  for  being  "  anti- 
episcopal,"  but  they  shrank  from  any  serious  dis- 
cussion of  the  question.  Friendly  Protestants  in  the 
Gaelic  League  thought  them  challenging  and  unwise. 
Sundry  quiet-minded  Catholics  betrayed  a  nervous 
dread  of  considering  the  matter  one  way  or  the  other. 
In  this,  as  in  many  another  instance,  they  shrank 
from  the  facts  as  some  sensitive  natures  shrink  from 
sights  of  torture.  Their  point  seemed  to  be  that 
whosoever  was  wrong  or  right  Ireland  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  old  storms  and  barbarities  of  Europe. 
This  attitude,  by  the  way,  deserves  thinking  over, 
as  it  goes  some  distance  to  explain  a  misunderstand- 
ing between  a  considerable  section  of  Irish  Catholics 
and  a  certain  proportion  of  Irish  Protestants.  Many 
Irish  Cathohcs  know,  and  desire  to  know,  very  Httle 
of  European  history,  but  have  a  certain  general  know- 
ledge of  Irish  history  ;  numerous  Irish  Protestants 
know  a  good  deal  of  European  history,  but  compara- 
tively httle  of  Irish  history.  European  history  has 
much  to  show  of  persecution  and  tyranny  by  Catholics 
(and  of  course  Protestants,  too) ;  Irish  history  hardly 
anything.  Those  Cathohcs  cannot  understand  the 
fear  or  presumption  of  Catholic  persecution,  those 
Protestants  (not  so  many,  however,  as  is  often  as- 
sumed) think  it  in  the  nature  of  things.  So  they 
look  on  the  question  of  what  is  possible  or  probable 
in  Ireland  from  very  different  standpoints.     If  the 


JOAN   OF   ARC   AND   IRELAND     311 

Catholics  knew  more  of  the  history  of  Europe  and 
the  Protestants  more  of  the  history  of  Ireland  there 
would  be  less  confusion  of  thought. 

There  were  later  occasions  for  pointing  the  moral 
of  the  story  of  Joan  of  Arc.  A  bishop  or  another 
made  mention  of  the  tragic  drama.  Thus  Dr. 
O'Donnell,  the  Bishop  of  Raphoe,  preaching  a  pane- 
gyric on  Columcille  in  Derry  in  May  1909,  said  :  "  In 
every  age  the  wisdom,  if  not  the  motives,  of  those 
who  sustain  an  heroic  part  in  great  contests,  is  called 
in  question  by  those  whose  view  or  interest  is  different. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  saints.  The  clouds  are 
sure  to  gather  from  some  quarter.  Even  the  great 
and  gentle  Anselm,  whose  eighth  centenary  the 
Church  has  just  been  celebrating,  did  not  escape.  .  .  . 
The  cloud,  however,  that  from  some  points  of  view 
shaded  Columba,  was  only  a  thin  mist  compared  with 
the  awful  thunderstorm  that  nine  centuries  later 
burst  in  the  city  of  Rouen  on  this  very  day  of  the 
year,  the  30th  of  May,  around  an  heroic  Maid.  .  .  . 
But  the  Church  of  God  discerns,  and  forgets  not  her 
saints.  Joan  of  Arc  is  beatified  by  Pius  X.  and 
Columba  is  not  forgotten  in  Leo  XIII.'s  famous 
letter  to  the  Scottish  nation."  The  Irish  Nation 
remarked  that  had  his  lordship  gone  a  little  into 
detail  the  very  true  point  he  made  could  have  been 
shown  in  striking  Ught ;  for  the  "  thunderstorm  " 
that  burst  round  Joan  of  Arc  was  an  ecclesiastical 
one  ;  she  was  condemned  as  a  "  heretic  "  by  eccle- 
siastics, and  her  sentence  was  read  by  a  bishop.  If 
a  bishop  could  make  so  terrible  a  mistake  on  a  re- 
ligious question  in  connection  with  a  saintly  character 
like  Joan,  was  it  not  likely  that  bishops  might  also 


312     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

be  mistaken  in  regard  to  national  questions  in  our 
own  day  ?  The  query  was  pertinent,  as  for  some 
time  ecclesiastics  from  the  Cardinal  down  had  been 
talking  wofuUy  or  wildly  of  the  "  anti-clerics  "  and 
all  such  dreadful  folk  who  had  been  standing  for 
popular  rights  in  education  and  other  things. 

That  very  week  the  Irish  Nation  and  myself  had 
received  a  choice  shower  of  compliments  at  the  hands 
of  a  Doctor  of  Divinity,  a  Connacht  bishop^s  right- 
hand  man,  and  an  editor  in  a  modest  way,  for  he 
had  charge  of  a  Cathedral  Calendar — through  which 
the  compliments  came.  Here  are  a  few  :  "  disreput- 
able publication,"  "  unwarranted  and  treacherous 
action,""  "  a  Julian  and  a  Judas  rolled  into  one," 
"  imagines  it  is  a  paying  game,"  "  he,  too,  might 
grow  fat  on  revihng  and  blackening  the  character  of 
his  distinguished  countrymen,"  "  graduated  in  Cock- 
neydom,"  "  disgusting  and  reprehensible,"  "  hastens 
to  fight  the  bishops  on  the  question  of  compulsory 
versus  voluntary  Irish  in  the  new  University,"  "  a 
pubUcation  whose  aims  are  Satanic."  In  a  country 
where  high  ecclesiastics  were  so  easily  excited  it  was 
perhaps  pardonable  to  assume  that  the  diffusion  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  facts  of  La  Pucelle's 
tragedy  would  do  good.  But  ironies  continued  to 
accompany  the  references.  On  the  last  occasion  of 
all,  when  a  cleric  had  questioned  some  of  the  facts 
— which  seemed  startlingly  new  to  Irish  country 
people — we  quoted  telling  points  in  reply  from  the 
work  of  a  certain  noted  historian.  And  then  a  re- 
lative of  the  historian's,  a  gifted  Irish  Protestant 
lady,  wrote  somewhat  sadly  to  say  that  what  she 
called  this  effort  to  prove  "  the  CathoUc  Church  " 


JOAN    OF   ARC   AND   IRELAND     313 

had  been  in  the  wrong  was  not  diplomatic  and  would 
lead  to  trouble  !  So  the  criticism  of  Cauchon  and 
his  brethren,  whom  Rome  itself  had  just  condemned 
by  implication,  was  an  attack  on  Catholicity,  and  led 
to  Protestant  distress.  Plainly  it  was  not  easy  to  be 
at  once  "  enlightening  "  and  "  diplomatic." 


CHAPTEE   XXVI 

POLITICAL  TRANSITION 

The  papers  I  successively  conducted  in  Ireland  did 
not  reflect  the  official  views  of  any  political  party, 
while  they  had  contributors  and  readers  from  prac- 
tically all  the  political  parties  and  groups.  We  were 
engaged  in  what  we  called  "  Nation-building/'  in  a 
rather  deep  and  capacious  sense,  and  we  considered 
pohtical  issues  and  personalities,  like  others,  in  the 
light  of  their  bearing  upon  the  "  Nation,''  which  I 
and  others  regarded  as  something  ever  growing, 
evolving,  realising  itself ;  the  resultant  of  numerous 
factors  and  forces,  obvious  and  not  obvious,  objec- 
tive and  subjective,  palpable  and  impalpable.  A  Co- 
operative Commonwealth  would  perhaps  best  express 
the  ultimate  ideal.  Whatever  changes,  immediate  or 
gradual,  modest  or  large,  tentative  or  sweeping,  might 
take  place  in  the  methods  or  machinery  of  Irish 
government  would  still  leave  us  the  educational, 
social,  intellectual,  theological,  co-operative,  and 
other  issues  and  problems  I  have  been  considering. 

Legislative  machinery,  wisely  used,  might  make  a 
big  difference,  inasmuch  as  it  would  enable  us  to  deal 
practically  with  several  things  in  regard  to  which  we 
had  so  far  merely  hopeful  beliefs  or  pious  opinions  ; 
and  it  might  also  lead  to  a  considerable  re- casting  of 
parties  and  groups  and  a  more  general  concentration 
on  domestic  and  internal  issues — education,  for  ex- 

314 


POLITICAL    TRANSITION  315 

ample — which  many  for  the  present  would  not  tackle, 
and  some,  for  selfish  reasons,  did  not  want  to  see 
tackled.  But  administrative  or  legislative  changes, 
after  all,  would  only  provide  us  with  machinery,  or 
levers  ;  in  the  last  analysis  fortune  and  progress 
depended  on  native  ideal  and  character ;  and  not 
those  of  one  class  or  creed,  but  of  all  classes  and 
creeds,  taking  a  healthy  and  cordial  interest  in  Ireland 
and  in  themselves  and  in  one  another  ;  sincerely 
concerned  in  the  development  of  a  fraternal  and 
fruitful  civilisation.  And  as  Ireland  was  a  very 
diverse,  complex,  much-tried,  and  somewhat  be- 
wildered entity,  we  could  not  expect  any  great  and 
decisive  progress  towards  this  brighter  ideal  for  a 
generation. 

On  the  surface  there  were  obvious  conflicting  in- 
terests or  difierences,  as  in  other  nations,  but  we 
might  well  hope  to  find  the  underlying  unity.  Under 
our  own  eyes  in  a  few  short  years  we  had  seen  hopeful 
and  heartsome  happenings,  and  they  were  an  earnest 
of  better  things  to  be.  While  politics,  in  the  re- 
stricted sense  in  which  it  is  usually  regarded,  and 
in  other  senses,  was  much  with  us,  the  far  greater 
importance  in  latter-day  Ireland  has  not  been  so 
much  a  pohtical  movement  as  what  might  be  called 
the  resurrection  and  the  fostering  of  a  Civilisation. 
In  other  words,  our  concern  has  been  more  with 
humanity  than  with  poUtics,  with  intensive  culture 
than  with  theory.  We  would  rather  see  Ireland  a 
creative,  humanised  Home  Power  than  one  of  the 
"  Great  Powers." 

To  those  who  think  thus,  and  there  are  many  of 
all  parties,  classes,  and  creeds  who  are  coming  so  to 


316     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

think  more  or  less,  ordinary  politics  must  often  seem 
somewhat  unreal.  Hence  it  is  that  so  many  of  the 
younger  men,  though  dseper  in  national  feeling  than 
their  fathers,  do  not  take  so  pronounced  a  part  in 
avowedly  poUtical  organisations.  Even  the  more 
advanced  body,  Sinn  Eein,^  has  not  retained  the 
allegiance  or  kept  up  the  enthusiasm  of  a  number 
of  them,  devoted  at  first,  partly  because  its  social 
and  co-operative  sense  grew  tepid. 

The  ablest  exponent  of  the  Sinn  Fein  policy  is 
Mr.  Arthur  Griffith,  who  set  before  Ireland  a  rather 
spacious  and  heroic  programme  at  the  outset.  It 
meant  the  withdrawal  of  the  Irish  Members  from 
Westminster,  the  application  of  the  home-working 
policy  of  the  Gaelic  League  and  the  industrial  move- 
ment to  further  questions  of  education  and  industry, 
to  transit,  economics,  poor  law,  afforestation,  arbitra- 
tion, banking,  and  several  others,  leading  up  to  the 
scheme  of  the  General  Council  of  County  Councils  as 
the  nucleus  of  a  national  authority  which  would 
practically  have  the  force  of  an  Irish  Parliament. 
It  meant  a  huge  self-helping,  home-doing,  and  inci- 
dentally passive  resistance  movement.  The  main 
effect  was  educational  and  critical.  On  the  whole 
the  official  Sinn  Fein  leaders  have  been  rather  lacking 
in  magnetic  individuahty  and  driving  power. 

Young  Ulster  Protestants — Hke  Mr.  Bulmer  Hob- 
son,  who  started  The  Re'puhlic  in  Belfast- — were 
amongst  those  attracted  at  first,  but  they  did  not 
find  official  Sinn  Fein  quite  bold  enough  or  con- 
genial enough.     It  also  secured  in  its  early  days  the 

1  Sinn  Fein  (Shinu  Fain),  literally  Ourselves.  "Sinn  Fein  amhiiin," 
Ourselves  alone. 


POLITICAL   TRANSITION  317 

adhesion  of  a  few  able  young  priests,  but  their  power 
was  limited.  In  practice,  Mr.  John  Sweetman,  its 
president,  has  proved  to  be  one  of  its  restraining 
and  restricting  influences.  He  is  a  Meath  grazier,  an 
alarmist  in  regard  to  the  labour  element  that  is 
trying  to  come  towards  its  own,  and  an  ultramontane. 
Hence,  however  sincerely  patriotic  he  may  be  in 
theory,  he  does  not  dream  of  applying  the  Sinn  Fein 
principle  more  than  partially ;  he  is  pained  or  per- 
turbed at  the  thought  of  tackling  and  solving  some 
of  those  very  problems  that  Ireland  most  needs  to 
solve.  Apart  from  these  difficulties  of  Sinn  Fein, 
Nationalist  Ireland  generally  was  not  convinced  that 
the  Parhamentary  leaders  could  carry  it  no  further. 

Yet  as  to  the  more  popular  Parliamentarian  force, 
to  some  extent  it  has  been  living  on  the  past,  and 
its  case  is  rather  complicated  and  curious.  It  is 
more  real  than  its  speakers  and  speeches  would  indi- 
cate. It  has  been  strongly  criticised  in  Ireland,  but 
of  course  for  reasons  entirely  different  from  those 
that  actuate  its  opponents  in  England.  Unless  we 
remember  this  we  confuse  the  question.  To  English 
critics  it  does  not  fit  in  with  an  Imperial  conception ; 
to  Irish  critics,  for  one  reason  or  another,  it  does  not 
harmonise  with  a  national,  intellectual,  and  social 
conception.  Its  leaders  resent  Irish  criticism  much 
more  than  Enghsh.  They  include  men  of  long  service 
who  have  suffered  for  the  faith  that  was  in  them,  but 
they  have  come  to  think  that  they  are  the  nation,  in 
much  the  same  way  as  ecclesiastics  think  they  them- 
selves are  the  Church.  Their  oratory  is  often  as  un- 
real as  sermons.  Many  a  time  in  following  the  home 
campaigns  and  pronouncements  of  Mr.  Redmond  and 


318     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

his  friends,  or  indeed  of  Mr.  William  O'Brien  and  his 
friends — and  in  a  minor  degree  of  Hibernians  and 
Orangemen — I  have  been  reminded  of  the  curious 
romances  that  appealed  more  or  less  to  people  high 
and  low  from  the  early  Middle  Ages  to  the  years  when 
modern  Europe  may  be  said  to  have  begun.  Of  such 
work  are  the  tales  laughed  out  of  actuality  but  given 
a  playful  literary  immortality  in  Don  Quixote,  the 
characters  and  concerns  poetised  in  Chiando  Inna- 
morato,  and  scores  of  others. 

Students  of  social  and  economic  interests  turning 
from  those  tales  to  the  actual  lives  of  the  people  are 
apt  to  condemn  them  as  peculiarly  unreal  and  un- 
natural. The  fact  remains  that  Europe  Hked  them 
for  ages,  extravagant  or  grotesque  though  they  seem, 
and  never  thought  of  asking  for  more  realistic  fiction. 
Europe  did  not  want  its  tale-weavers  and  romancists 
to  deal  with  the  life  it  knew,  but  to  turn  its  mind  to 
realms  where  the  fantastic  was  normal  and  the  im- 
possible ran  riot.  Eventually  the  wildast  dragons 
became  ordinary,  and  knights-errant  had  to  be  fear- 
fully and  wonderfully  spiced  before  the  popular  palate 
would  accept  them.  In  the  end  the  minds  of  the 
tale-tellers,  and  many  of  those  who  heard  them,  be- 
came so  inured  to  extravagance  that  though  they  ate 
and  drank  and  did  the  ordinary  business  of  life  much 
like  their  fellow-men,  they  were  mild  lunatics  intel- 
lectually. They  lived  in  an  unreal  world  and  were 
impervious  to  reason  and  experience.  In  the  shocks 
of  the  economic,  intellectual,  spiritual,  and  national 
revolutions  that  mads  modern  Europe  they  were 
sobered  or  annihilated. 

One  of  the  functions  performed  by  popular  members 


POLITICAL   TRANSITION  319 

of  the  Irish  Party — and  various  other  politicians — in 
Ireland  is  curiously  similar  to  theirs.  They  have 
other  aspects,  to  be  sure,  but  very  often  they  are  just 
tellers  of  stories  which  hosts  of  their  hearers  accept 
in  the  spirit  in  which  mediaeval  Europe  took  its  tales 
of  knight  and  dragon.  Part  of  their  power  Hes  in 
their  appeal  to  the  story-sense  in  the  masses,  who 
have  few  recreations  or  noble  distractions  in  the  toil 
of  life.  Their  speeches  about  the  Promised  Land,  the 
no-far-distant  glory  in  College  Green,  the  struggle  for 
Unity — they  are  as  keen  on  a  mechanical  and  surface 
unity  as  Churchmen — against  the  Dragons  of  Dis- 
sension, the  epic  Fights  on  the  Floor  of  the  House, 
the  Wonders  that  are  always  going  to  happen — these 
things  are  the  romantic  tales,  the  spirited  melodrama, 
the  coveted  intellectual  dissipation  of  thousands  who 
can  secure  no  better.  They  have  little  or  no  relation 
to  the  realities  and  problems  of  the  actual  Ireland 
that  we  know.  Of  course,  the  M.P.'s  will  reply  that 
their  great  concern  is  with  a  root-matter,  as  they 
and  their  regular  audiences  beUeve,  and  that  things 
must  be  put  in  a  bold  and  highly-coloured  way 
for  the  multitude.  Be  that  as  it  may,  while  in  them- 
selves they  are  often  shrewd  and  capable  in  normal 
life,  on  the  platform  they  are  gorgeous  story-tellers 
and  eloquent  romancists. 

On  this  role  and  relation  of  theirs  the  rising  gene- 
ration for  a  decade  or  more  has  been  caustic  and 
ironical.  Many  of  their  own  home-staying,  more 
realistic  followers  want  them  to  feel  and  speak  like 
nation-builders,  not  knights-errant  and  slayers  of 
dragons.  In  that  respect,  whatever  their  other 
merits,   they  remain  for  the  most  part  incurable. 


320     THE   POPE'S   GREEN   ISLAND 

But  though  Parliamentarianism  has  thus  acquired 
a  certain  humorous  significance  with  really  earnest 
people,  and  though  it  has  been  criticised  in  turn  for 
unreaHty,  opportunism,  half-nationalism,  it  is  still 
fairly  strong  in  the  country.  To  some  extent  its 
leaders  are  independent  of  Irish  opinion  and  criticism, 
being  rather  generously  supported  financially  and 
morally  by  Irish- America  and  Irish- Australia.  This 
point  might  very  easily  be  pushed  too  far.  If  Irish- 
men abroad  preserve  a  certain  sympathy  for  the 
homeland,  it  is  entirely  to  their  credit.  Various  Irish 
causes  and  projects  owe  much  to  their  support,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  ideal  of  most  of  us  is  an  Ireland 
doing  her  own  varied  work  and  supporting  it  herself ; 
but  matters  are  not  normal  yet,  very  far  from  it. 

Meanwhile  there  is  something  in  the  point  that  the 
Irish  Party  thinks  to  a  certain  extent  for  Irish- 
America,  as  higher  ecclesiastics  think  to  no  small 
extent  for  Pome,  and  others  in  Ireland  think  more 
or  less  for  England.  It  is  a  complicated  situation. 
Anyhow,  the  "  Party  "  is  in  possession,  with  a  certain 
tradition  behind  it,  a  certain  momentum  in  it,  and 
it  has  the  power  of  the  purse  in  addition  to  its  prestige. 
It  is  fairly  representative  of  its  Irish  constituencies, 
but  in  later  and  present  circumstances  need  not  be 
over-sensitive  or  responsive  to  their  criticism.  The 
points  of  view  from  which  it  is  regarded  in  Ireland 
vary  greatly.  Some  resent  or  lament  its  isolation — 
in  the  main — from  the  newer  movements  ;  to  others 
it  is  largely  an  Enghsh  political  party  in  practice  ; 
to  many,  on  the  other  hand,  it  fairly  typifies  what 
they  regard  as  national,  though  some  of  them  con- 
sider it  might  be  more  effective  and  more  Irish: 


POLITICAL   TRANSITION  321 

Thousands  who  find  in  its  platform  romance  and 
imagery  a  certain  intoxication  or  dissipation  are  also 
shrewd  enough  to  realise  the  serious  underlying  pro- 
gramme for  which  it  stands  more  or  less.  They  have 
not  forgotten  the  agrarian  and  other  revolutions  that 
have  been  wrought  since  the  eighties — though  the 
Party  is  often  reminded  that  these  were  really  won 
by  agitation  in  Ireland — they  know  the  industrial, 
transit,  educational,  and  other  reforms  that  are  still 
essential,  and,  despite  all  the  criticism,  they  are  not 
greatly  shaken  in  the  faith  that  the  Party's  pro- 
fessed way  of  getting  the  means  of  dealing  with 
these  is  the  better  one. 

The  relations  of  the  ParUamentarians  and  the  gene- 
rality of  the  CathoUc  clergy  are  outwardly  placid  on 
the  whole,  but  the  association  is  not  founded  on  any 
real  mutual  trust  or  esteem,  and  shrewd  observers  do 
not  beheve  that  it  is  likely  to  be  lasting.  The  clergy 
fear  that  soon  or  late  their  monopoly  of  educational 
management  and  other  things  wiU  be  faced  and 
broken.  The  bishops — and  the  Vatican — desire  the 
M.P.'s,  or  most  of  them,  to  remain  as  a  Catholic 
party,  in  effect,  at  Westminster.  Concentration  and 
questioning  in  Ireland  are  not  at  aU  to  the  taste  of 
the  majority  of  the  prelates. 

Altogether  we  have  seen  in  pohtics  some  such 
currents  and  changes  as  we  have  seen  in  the  CathoUc 
world.  Estabhshed  leaders  and  explanations  have 
been  questioned.  Tested  in  the  hght  of  a  new  and 
larger  ideal,  they  were  found  wanting.  Dissatisfied 
younger  people  found  a  field  for  their  energies  in  work 
not  avowedly  political,  but  in  the  broad  sense  national. 
As  time  went  on,  while  there  was  a  certain  divorce 

X 


U- 


322     THE   POPE'S   GREEN    ISLAND 

between  this  growing  element  and  folk  high  and  low 
in  the  ParHamentary  movement,  a  great  many  in  the 
latter  became  more  or  less  afiected  by  the  practical 
idealism  and  the  clearer  national  consciousness  created 
by  the  newer  thinkers  and  workers,  and  the  trend  in 
that  direction  is  increasing.  The  attitude  of  the 
country  people  in  the  University  struggle  was  as 
great  a  revelation  to  political  leaders  in  general  as  to 
Churchmen.  It  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  mino- 
rity of  those  political  leaders,  including  members  of 
the  Irish  Party,  who  had  rendered  definite  service  to 
the  Gaelic  League  and  the  industrial  mission — men 
who  had  seen  Ireland  more  clearly  than  their  col- 
leagues. 

So  the  political  sphere  shows  transition  and  re- 
adjustment, though  not  as  yet  in  the  same  degree  as 
others,  for  the  waiting  on  the  Westminster  "  result  " 
has  tended,  in  some  quarters,  during  the  past  few 
years,  to  a  certain  suspension  and  resignation,  or 
what  restive  or  impatient  spirits  call  stagnation. 
With  labour's  bestirring  of  itself,  with  the  serious 
social,  industrial,  and  educational  problems  that  Ire- 
land has  to  settle  north  and  south — all  looked  at  by 
a  large  proportion  of  people  in  their  bearing  on  a 
more  generous  and  human  national  ideal — there  must 
necessarily  be  considerable  changes  in  the  general 
situation  in  the  near  future.  Legislation  at  the  best 
can  only  be  one  important  factor.  The  most  hopeful 
feature — ^though  there  are  serious  anti-social  and 
selfish  forces  in  the  country — is  the  deepening  desire 
for  concentration  and  co-operation  within  Ireland, 
for  the  development  of  a  natural  civiHsation,  and 
making  Ireland  worthy  of  herself. 


CHAPTER   XXVII 

EN   ROUTE 

The  ideals  and  the  actualities,  the  comradeship  and 
the  clash,  the  struggles  and  the  successes  I  have 
described,  made  Ireland  seem  miceasingly  interesting 
in  those  years.  The  dominant  feeling  which  remains 
with  me  is  that  the  life  was  spacious  and  joyous. 
And  such  in  sooth  it  was,  for  all  the  tension  and 
trouble.  Where  people  are  re-discovering  themselves, 
are  mentally  alive,  there  is  always  magic,  whatever 
the  opposing  powers  may  be.  To  work  and  look 
inward  is  better  than  to  look  towards  the  stars  ;  and 
that  is  what  a  number  of  our  people  have  been  doing 
this  century.  That  way  lie  riches  and  a  renewal  of 
wonder,  a  joy  which  can  neither  be  expressed  nor 
argued  about,  and  a  strength,  individual  and  collec- 
tive, which  is  likely  to  prove  unaccountable  and 
embarrassing  to  opponents  who  are  always  looking 
outward  and  afar.  Others  who  have  not  been  looking 
deeply  inward  have  been  looking  critically  and  in- 
terestedly round  about  them  with  the  view  to  the 
brightening  and  uplifting  of  little  or  much  in  native 
circumstances,  and  in  the  way  that  seems  natural 
and  effective  to  themselves,  not  necessarily  in  the 
way  that  seems  appropriate  to  theorists,  tourists, 
and  strangers. 

Through  these  and  other  reasons  we  come  once 
more   to   have   social   and   intellectual   history   and 

3£3 


324     THE   POPE'S    GREEN   ISLAND 

spiritual  stress  and  drama  in  Ireland.  The  sbock  of 
the  experience  is  distinctly  good  for  us.  We  do  not 
expect  great  results  in  a  day  or  a  generation.  Theo- 
logy will  not  be  spiritualised  to-morrow,  nor  Chris- 
tianity in  its  various  forms  be  seen  in  being  as  a 
vital  social  force  the  day  after.  A  new  Irish  art 
and  literature  need  not  be  expected  to  come  into 
flower  in  a  decade,  nor  the  decayed  town  to  have 
become  the  City  Beautiful,  nor  the  farmer  and  the 
labourer  to  have  got  more  than  a  prehminary  stage 
in  the  establishment  of  the  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth. In  short,  neither  now  nor  hereafter  can  magic 
and  miracle  take  the  place  of  normal  processes  in 
Irish  or  any  other  affairs.  But  "  normal "  is  an 
elastic  term  ;  by  creating  a  finer  consciousness,  indi- 
vidual and  collective,  in  other  words  by  evolution 
of  mentaUty,  by  remembering  and  acting  upon  the 
faith  that  interior  development  is  the  beginning  of 
progress,  we  can  make  normal  what  in  stagnant 
and  pessimistic  circumstances  would  seem  abnormal 
or  magical. 

Some  such  efiect  has  been  achieved  in  Ireland  this 
century  in  a  modest  degree.  It  quickens  our  interest, 
stimulates  the  quest  for  the  more  and  more.  And 
when  Eire  in  some  far-oif  age  has  evolved  into  the 
state  which  co-operators  picture  as  perfect  co-opera- 
tion, Gaels  as  Gaelicism  in  flower.  Christian  idealists 
as  practical  Christianity,  it  will  all  be  seen  to  have 
just  brought  men  to  the  threshold,  so  to  say,  of  the 
House  of  Life,  the  gate  of  the  Field  of  Life.  They 
will  simply  have  set  self  and  social  state  in  order, 
tamed  the  physical  and  psychic  Adam,  and  cleared 
the  course  for  the  fairer  and  finer  evolution  of  their 


EN    ROUTE  325 

mental  and  spiritual  selves,  their  real  and  permanent 
individualities. 

Happily  there  is  no  probability  that  the  state  of 
man,  as  we  know  him,  Eireannach  or  another,  will 
ever  be  static.  There  will  always  be  more  and  more 
mental  farming  to  do,  higher  and  higher  states  of 
consciousness  to  attain.  To  the  purposive  activity 
and  movement  we  can  imagine  no  finale.  We  are 
all  en  route  ^  eternally  creators  and  re-creators.  We 
may  quicken  the  pace  and  spiritualise  the  process  in 
any  age.  That  is  the  essence  and  innermost  meaning 
of  the  best  of  the  work  in  the  Ireland  of  the  new 
century. 


Printed  by  Ballantyne,  Hanson  b'  Co. 
Edinburgh  b"  London 


Date  Due 


DATE  DUE 

APR   f  5 

1995 

r  ^r. 

T    / 

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